Lorelai
by LinariteLavanya
Summary: Lorelai is a half-Wraith, half-human eighteen year old. Kept in stasis for thousands of years, she is found by Sheppard and his team after their return to the Pegasus galaxy. -ON TEMPORARY HIATUS-
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, hi everyone. This fic is basically an idea that popped into my head after watching a bunch of SGA the other day. And then of course the idea did not pop out again, it just got bigger and bigger, and now I'm writing it. :D. In any case, this story takes place after Season 5; they returned to the Pegasus Galaxy, as they would have had the show not been cancelled (though they're doing continuation books! Yay!). In my story though, Carter replaced Woolsey after they got to Earth (this is mostly because 1. I like Sam better and 2. I can write Sam better because I spent ten years watching SG-1 before SGA. I can never write Woolsey very well, he's just too….Woolsey. XD.). Anyhow, I hope you enjoy this! Oh! And reviews would be nice. ;D **

**Oh, and I do not own SGA, any of the characters, et cetera, et cetera. **

**Oh, and scene breaks are just the lines now, since the thing keeps erasing _my_ scene breaks. And they looked so nice too. Grr.  
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><p>"What're we doing here?" Sheppard asked as they trekked through the dense forest of their assigned planet of the day.<p>

"Well," McKay said, coming up alongside him, "The team who came here before reported some buildings that looked like Ancient design on the other side of the forest. But they didn't have time to investigate because of a freak rainstorm, so we don't know for sure."

"So…what're we doing here?" Ronan asked from behind them.

"Rodney wants to look at an old building." John said, sounding less-than-thrilled.

"Ugh." Ronon rolled his eyes.

"Perhaps there will be something interesting there, like some of the Ancestor's technology." Teyla said diplomatically.

Ronon and John just sighed.

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><p>"Well, here we are." McKay said an hour later, as they finally reached the main building. They'd investigated some of the outlying buildings, but had found nothing worth note.<p>

"Oh, goodie, another empty building." Sheppard said, his voice dripping sarcasm.

"Hey, this one might not be empty, okay?" McKay retorted.

And so they entered the building.

They went through various rooms, and found what seemed to be science equipment. It was of Ancient design, but was obviously in disrepair from not being used in a long while.

"There's a downstairs." Ronon said eventually, pointing his gun in the direction of some stairs headed down.

"Alright, let's check it out." John said, gesturing for Ronon to go ahead.

They descended into the darkness. Then….

"Sheppard. You'd better check this out." Ronon's voice came from the center of the basement room.

John walked over. "What is it?"

"A person."

John got to the Satedan's side, and saw what he was looking at.

"It's a stasis chamber!" McKay declared excitedly, scurrying over.

And inside was a teenage girl.

She looked about eighteen, with pale skin and long dark brown hair. She was dressed in a loose white shirt and long white pants, like the clothing a hospital patient might wear. The only clothing item that wasn't white was a black fingerless glove on her right hand. She looked like she was asleep, her chest rising and falling rhythmically.

"McKay." John said expectantly.

"Well, don't look at me, I don't know who she is."

"Is she an Ancient?" Ronon asked.

Teyla frowned slightly.

"Teyla?" John noticed her face. "Something wrong?"

"She…feels like a Wraith." Teyla said uncertainly.

"Well, that's impossible." McKay said. "I mean, look at her. She's obviously human."

"Well, this appears to be a laboratory of some sort." Teyla said, gesturing at the equipment. "Perhaps we can find answers here."

"Alright. McKay, check it out. Ronon, Teyla, with me. Let's finish checking out the rest of this place."

With that McKay was left alone in the basement laboratory.

He puttered around for a few minutes, checking out various computer interfaces, and some vials of a strange chemical on table against the far wall, but kept coming back to the stasis pod.

"Oh, what could it hurt?" he asked, and pressed a few buttons.

The glass top retracted, and after a moment, its occupant's eyes opened.

"McKay!" John said, coming down the stairs. "What'd you just do?"

"Uh, I…uh….woke her up."

John looked past the scientist to see the girl sit up, blinking confusedly, like someone woken from a deep sleep. "Well, now what are we supposed to do with her?" he hissed at McKay, who recoiled.

"I don't know!" he said helplessly.

"We could take her back to Atlantis." Teyla suggested.

"Why don't we ask for her name first?" Ronon said, walking past them.

McKay stared after him in disbelief. "Since when is he Mr. Sensitive?"

But they watched as Ronon went up to the girl, who was now sitting up, looking around.

"Do you know where you are?" the Satedan asked.

She rubbed her eyes sleepily. "The lab. Why?"

"Do you know how long you've been here?"

The girl frowned. "Yolan should be here. She said she'd come back for me. Where is she?"

"Oh no." McKay said suddenly. He'd been reading a computer interface across the room.

"What is it?" John asked.

"This place has been abandoned for thousands of years."

The girl went pale. "Impossible." She vaulted out of the stasis pod faster than the Atlantis team could react, and ran to the computer interface, typing frantically.

"No. No no no no no _NO_!" she slammed her hands against the computer. "No…" She sank to the ground.

"I take it that comes as a shock to you." John said.

The girl just stared blankly ahead, not seeing anything.

"The most recent activity on this thing was the activation of the stasis pod. And….something about a Lorelai."

"Is that you?" Ronon asked, kneeling next to her. "Is your name Lorelai?"

She nodded numbly.

"Here." He took off his coat and draped it over her shoulders.

She took a deep breath and that seemed to focus her. Looking up at the team, she frowned. "Who are you?"

"I'm Colonel John Sheppard, this is Teyla Emmagan, Rodney McKay and Ronon Dex." He pointed to each in turn. "We're from Atlantis."

Lorelai straightened at this. "Atlantis? It was lost…ages ago." She frowned.

"We found it, and brought it back again. But before that, it was missing for ten thousand years."

"_Ten_ thousand?" she repeated, shocked.

"Lorelai?"

"It was only gone for two thousand years when I was awake last." Lorelai said weakly.

"Oh, is that all?" McKay asked sarcastically.

"Lorelai, were there Ancients here with you? When you were awake?" Teyla asked gently.

"The scientists who were working on me."

"Working….on you?" McKay repeated, frowning. He turned back to the console and hurriedly started tapping keys.

John stared at McKay for a moment, then turned back to the others. "So, moving on…."

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><p>An hour later, John had pried McKay away from the computers, and they were all on their way back to the gate, Lorelai with them. With Ronon and Lorelai in the lead, McKay was whispered urgently to Sheppard.<p>

"I'm just saying, Teyla said she felt like Wraith, and those files were obviously for some sort of genetic experiment. And Lorelai even said herself she was 'worked on'."

"McKay…"

"I just don't think it'd such a good idea to let her run around Atlantis, is all."

"Okay. So we tell Carter your theory," John said, referring to Colonel Carter, who had replaced Woolsey as head of the Atlantis expedition after they had finally returned back to the Pegasus Galaxy after the landing-the-city-in-San-Francisco-Bay incident. "Then we can keep Lorelai isolated until you figure out what's going on. Okay?"

"Yeah. That sounds good."

John nodded. "Glad we cleared that up."

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><p>Colonel Samantha Carter let John pull her aside when they arrived back through the Gate to Atlantis. She agreed with his and McKay's decisions. "Let her have a shower and a change of clothes first, then put her down in the cell."<p>

"Whoa, hang on. Isn't that a little harsh?"

"John, you said yourself she could be Wraith. We need to be careful."

Eventually John agreed, albeit with reservations. "She's just barely eighteen. Well, ignoring the thousands of years in stasis, anyway."

"I get the idea, John."

"All I'm saying is…be nice to her. She's just a kid."

* * *

><p>Lorelai showered and changed into clothes Teyla brought her. A light blue tank top and cargo pants, Teyla told her. She changed into them, but was careful to keep her glove on. Teyla didn't seem to notice.<p>

After changing, Teyla brought her up to McKay's lab, where he drew blood samples and did some basic scans. This, of all things, helped her to relax. It reminded her of Yolan and the other scientists, giving her the small comfort of vague familiarity.

It occurred to her that since it had been eight thousand years, Yolan and the others would all be long dead or ascended. This caused her to drop back down towards depression, but she managed to balance her mood out with the small consolation that she was, after all, in the lost city of Atlantis. It cheered her enough to help put up with an hour of poking and prodding from McKay.

Eventually he was finished, and waved her away. However, instead of Teyla, two armed guards escorted her from the lab. And down to the holding areas. Where she was put into a specious holding area, though to be honest, it was, basically, a cell. There was even a force field in addition to the bars.

"Is this how you treat all your guests?" she asked, giving a tired smile to her escorts.

"It's just until McKay's finished with your tests." Sheppard said from the door.

She turned around, and managed to smile at him too. "I understand."

In any case, it wasn't so different from before really. This time the cage just looked like it was.

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><p><strong>AN: So…..like, dislike? Kindly review and tell me what you think.**

**And worry not. If you didn't like this first chapter very much, it gets better. I actually started writing chapter 2 first, and then had to come back and write this, which is why it might seem short and possibly a little rushed. But! Review anyway. It'll make my day. ;D. **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Okie-dokie, people. Here is Chapter 2 of Lorelai's story. This chapter's a little bit longer than the last one. Let's see, warnings….in this chapter we learn that Lorelai is part Wraith (but you already knew that, right? It was in the blurb. XD). Oh, and Ronon defaults to "Rawr Wraith" when he finds out. I'm just letting everyone know in advance, I'm not trying to make Ronon look bad; he's my fave character, and I love him to pieces, but let's face it folks: he don't like the Wraith (And yes, that "don't" was deliberate.). So I had to write it fairly realistically. XD. In any case, read and review, people! Ah, almost forgot. I own ****nothing ****SGA related. Except for a couple DVDs. All characters (not counting Lorelai) are copyrighted, and so forth. Don't sue me - I have no money. :D Oh, and review once you're done reading, please!**

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><p>Sheppard walked into McKay's lab. "You had something to tell me, Rodney?"<p>

The scientist looked up. "Yes! Yes, I've been working out what exactly Lorelai is."

"Good. So what is she?"

"Well, Teyla was right. She is Wraith."

"What?"

"But she's also not." McKay said hurriedly, before turning his computer so Sheppard could see. "The Ancients literally created her. A genetic experiment. Part human, part Wraith."

John frowned. "Like a test tube baby."

"Much more complicated, but basically, yeah."

"So she's part Wraith, huh?" He turned to the monitor on the wall, which showed Lorelai in her cell. "Can't tell from looking at her."

"No. The gene split is fifty-fifty, but the Ancients made it so that most of her Wraith-like qualities are, uh, internal factors. The fast healing, the super strength, you get the idea."

"Hang on, you said…most?"

McKay looked suddenly uncomfortable. "Well…."

"McKay."

"Her right hand." He said after a moment.

"What about it?"

"Well, her hand has a scar across it that's suspiciously similar to a Wraith's-"

"She can feed?" he demanded.

"No!" McKay said quickly. "Not as such, no. Like I said, it's basically a scar. If it ever worked like the Wraith's feeding-whatever in the first place, it's long since sealed from all the time she spent in stasis. In fact, the Ancients probably meant for that to happen."

"Oh?"

"Well, remember those vials and syringes we found in the lab where she was in stasis?"

"Yeah."

"Well, it turns out the liquid is a sort of chemical sustenance. Lorelai needs it to survive. Like tretonin for the free Jaffa. If she goes too long without it…."

"She'll die." John finished for him.

"Yeah."

John sighed. "Well, this is just great. We have a half-Wraith who's been asleep for thousands of years and needs a weird medicine drug to survive. Swell."

McKay shrugged. "Sorry."

The Colonel shook his head. "No, it's okay. I'd better go brief the others."

But he intended to make a stop to see the girl in question first.

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><p>"She's a Wraith?" Ronon shouted.<p>

"No, no she's not." John said. "She's half."

Ronon just glared at him.

"Hey," John said defensively. "I can't help what she is, and neither can she."

"You said she was an Ancient experiment?" Teyla asked.

"That's what McKay said." John confirmed.

"Does she know?"

"I talked to her before I came here to talk to all of you." John said. "She knew."

"She didn't feel like mentioning it earlier?" Ronon growled.

"Well, she probably knew how we'd all react if we knew the truth. I mean, she was alive when the Ancients were, and the Wraith definitely weren't popular then." John said reasonably. "And if it helps, it's not like she's exactly thrilled about it, either."

Teyla looked concerned. "How is she?"

"In her cell, looking miserable."

"Good." Ronon bit out.

Teyla glared at him. "She cannot help what she is, Ronon, anymore than you or I can."

"Why did the Ancients create her? Does she know?" Carter asked.

"I didn't ask her." John said. "McKay's going through the files from the lab though, so he may find something out."

"Does it matter?" Ronon asked. "She's dangerous."

"She's a bigger danger to the Wraith." John said seriously. "She's got a lot of their strengths, without needing to feed. And if she _was_ made by the Ancients, then she won't exactly be overly fond of the Wraith."

"Do you think that perhaps she was created to fight them?" Teyla asked.

"Maybe, I don't know." John shrugged. "All we can do now is decide what to do with her."

"Kill her." Ronon said instantly.

"No." Carter said firmly. "We told her we'd give her shelter, we can't go back on our word."

"She's Wraith." Ronon argued.

"I'm only half Wraith." A familiar voice contradicted from the doorway.

"I asked to have her brought up from her cell." John said by way of explanation when Ronon stood up out of his seat, face murderous. "Ronon, sit down, that's an order."

The Satedan sat, but never took his eyes of Lorelai, who had looked upset before, but had now adopted a look of impassiveness.

"I was safer in my cell." she said flatly.

"Ronon will do you no harm." Teyla said reassuringly.

"Uh-huh." she looked unconvinced.

"Here," John said, trying to diffuse the tense atmosphere. "Why don't you sit down?" He pointed to the chair beside him.

Without a word the half-Wraith teenager walked around the table and sat down next to him.

"So…" Carter said after a long moment of awkward silence. "We received a message from 3PR-M67."

"What'd they want?" John asked, leaning back in his chair.

"Apparently a couple Darts flew over the village about month ago. Nothing happened at the time, but some of the villagers have reporting seeing Wraith deep in the woods nearby since then, and couple villagers may have gone missing."

"But no feeding, no cullings? Isn't that a little strange?" John asked suspiciously.

"Yes, which is why I'm sending your team to investigate."

"Yes ma'am." John said easily.

"And you'll be taking Lorelai with you." She added.

Ronon erupted out of his seat. "No!"

"Ronon, sit down!" John ordered.

Teyla noticed that for one short moment, Lorelai's expressionless mask had broken, and the girl had looked deeply hurt by Ronon's reaction. It must be a shock, Teyla realized, after Ronon had treated her so well when she'd first come out of stasis.

Teyla considered going to comfort the girl, but just as quickly as the look had come, it was gone, and her face was devoid of emotion again.

"This is non-negotiable." Carter said seriously. "I want her there."

"And if she sides with them?" Ronon demanded.

And for the second time in as many minutes, the half-Wraith's emotionless façade broke. She stood up and her hands were fisted. "I was created to fight the Wraith. Why would I join them?".

Ronan opened his mouth to respond, but Teyla cut him off. "So you _were _meant to fight the Wraith?"

Lorelai nodded, not looking at all happy. "I was made to be an effective soldier against the Wraith." She looked back at Ronon. "My entire reason for being is to fight them. The only reason I was in stasis in the first place was because my creators didn't want me rushing off to fight before they were sure I'd last."

"Last?" Carter repeated, looking confused.

But Lorelai shook her head. "No. I've said enough."

"Lorelai." John said in a warning voice. "You need to explain yourself."

She glared at him, but relented. "I look eighteen, don't I?"

"Yes." he said, not sure where this was going.

"That's how old I was when they put me into stasis the last time."

"You were in stasis before that?" Teyla asked.

"Yes. I was in stasis from four years of age to six, and again from nine years to twelve. But my creators engineered it so that I aged during those intervals. This last time they did not."

"Why not?" Carter asked.

"How should I know?" Lorelai answered bitterly. "I was just their science project."

"Why were you put into stasis those first two times?" John asked.

"Because they wanted to monitor my condition. That was what I meant about not lasting. Because I require Avoren to survive, they were worried that my lifespan would be too short."

"Avoren?" Carter repeated questioningly.

"The chemical in the lab, the one McKay said you need to live?" John asked the girl.

She nodded. "I can't last long without it."

"But all these years in stasis…" Teyla said uncertainly.

"The stasis pod's internal atmosphere contained Avoren in a vaporous form."

"That's incredible." Carter said admiringly. "They really knew what they were doing."

Lorelai's face darkened. "Obviously."

No one seemed to have a good response to the girl's obviously poor frame of mind. Eventually Carter continued telling them about the mission goals, while Lorelai leaned against the wall, refusing to sit back down.

"I want you to deploy tomorrow morning." Carter finished twenty minutes later. "Get a good night's sleep."

The team stood and left for their rooms, while Lorelai was escorted back to her cell.

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><p>"I don't trust her." Ronon said as he sparred with Teyla an hour later.<p>

"You did when you first met her." Teyla pointed out, dodging one of Ronon's swings.

"Yeah, before I knew she was Wraith." He swung again, but Teyla avoided it again.

"Perhaps she does not consider herself Wraith." Teyla said after a long moment of back and forth attacking.

"Well, she is." Ronon disengaged and backed away, abandoning the sparring.

Teyla sighed. "Ronon." She looked at the Satedan unhappily. "Lorelai is all alone now. She needs our support."

He didn't say anything in response, and left the room.

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><p>Sitting on the slim bench in the cell, Lorelai contemplated her situation.<p>

Her creators were long gone, the Wraith were still a threat, and she was imprisoned by the people she was supposed to be helping. And they hated her.

And she honestly couldn't blame them. She hated herself, too. She loathed what she was, that she wasn't fully human. Logically, she could understand the benefits of having the fast healing and the stronger muscles. But the logic was no comfort to her, she who was half her own enemy.

She clenched her right hand, glad it was covered by a fingerless glove. To anyone who didn't know the Wraith, it would just look like her hand had a strange scar. But to someone who knew…it was obvious. It didn't matter that she couldn't use her hand to steal life force like the wraith could. She had the symbol of it, and it was enough to make her sick.

And to top it all off, she needed Avoren to survive.

_No wonder they didn't want me_, she thought bitterly. _Who wants such a pitiful creation?_

Because that's what it had been, she reasoned. Her creators had abandoned her because she wasn't simply an expendable experiment, she was a failed one. No matter how kind they had been to her during the periods she was awake, no matter how much like a family they had felt, she really had been nothing more than an interesting project. If they had actually cared, they wouldn't have just left her there, not for thousands of years, to be found by strangers who hated her.

"I didn't realize Wraith could cry." A low voice said.

Her head shot up, and she saw Ronon standing against the wall. And then she was horrified to discover that she _had_ been crying.

She angrily rubbed an arm across her face. "I'm not Wraith." she said without looking at him.

"Hmph."

"I'm only half." she snapped, glaring at him. "But if that's enough for you to hate me, so be it. You can't possibly hate what I am more than I do, anyway." She turned around so she didn't have to face him, and tried to focus on calming her temper.

"I'm not glad you're going with us." Ronon said matter-of-factly.

"I noticed." she said coldly.

"If you turn traitor, I _will_ kill you." he said seriously.

"Good." she said, and meant it.

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><p><strong>AN: Like, dislike? Review and tell me your thoughts, please. The next chapter's ready to be posted, I'm just waiting to see how much interest there is in the story. :D. Oh, and to anyone who reviews and/or adds my story to their alerts: I love you all dearly, and you're all added to the 'THANK YOU' section of my profile. 3.  
><strong>


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Yay, time for a new chapter! This one has some fighting action in it, though I probably didn't write it very well. XD. Oh, and please review! I know people are at least clicking on, and probably reading, the story - reviews are just a small step further. XD. (Also, anyone who reviews gets personally thanked on my profile 3).  
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** Again, I don't own SGA, the characters, and so on. **

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><p>Lorelai stood off to the side while the others waited for the technician to dial the gate. She was wearing combat boots and a leather jacket, but aside from that was still in the clothes Teyla had given her. Sheppard had given her two pistols in case she needed to defend herself, a decision Ronon had been less than thrilled about. She'd considered returning the guns to John, but decided against it in the end. Ronon was better armed than she was; he wouldn't have any trouble taking her out if she turned on them.<p>

Evidently Ronon had decided the same, because he had relented, though every time she looked at him he'd either glare at her or look away immediately. She decided to just ignore him.

Suddenly the 7th chevron locked into place, and the Gate activated, the wormhole whooshing outwards.

"Okay, let's move out." John said, and they all followed.

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><p>"Well," John said after an hour of talking to the villagers, " Well, a couple villagers <em>have <em>disappeared, but there's no way to be sure these people actually saw Wraith unless we go out there and see for ourselves."

"Good. Let's go." Ronon said.

So they left the village, and headed for the forest, where the villagers had reported seeing the Wraith.

After half an hour of walking they came across what seemed to be a cave entrance. Upon entering they saw that it had two branching tunnels.

"Ronon, Teyla, take Lorelai, go right. McKay, you're with me. Come on."

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><p>Lorelai followed Teyla as Ronon brought up the rear. They went on like that for some time until the tunnel opened into a larger cavern. Then…<p>

"Wraith!" Teyla said, aiming her gun at the tunnel entrance on the other side of the cavern. Ronon followed suit, and suddenly two Wraith emerged and attacked. Ronon and Teyla fired, but the Wraith kept coming. It was then that Lorelai spotted two villagers dead on the ground in the tunnel beyond.

Then suddenly one of the Wraith split off from attacking Teyla and Ronon and came at her.

"Lorelai, run!" Teyla shouted.

"What?" she demanded, outraged. But the shots from her pistols weren't doing any damage either.

"Just go!" Ronon yelled.

She obeyed, dodging around the Wraith and going down the tunnel their enemies had come out of, passing the dead villagers on the ground. She could see an exit into the forest, and sprinted forward. Once outside she spotted a hill covered in trees, and made it her goal.

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><p>In the meantime, Ronon and Teyla's Wraith opponent gave up trying to fight them two on one, and turned back and fled through the tunnel leading outside. Ronon and Teyla chased after, and just as they emerged from the cave, a radio transmission from Sheppard came through.<p>

"Teyla, Ronon, come in."

"We hear you, John." Teyla said, short of breath. "We are in pursuit of two Wraith."

"Understood. McKay and I are after one too. We'll meet you back at the Gate."

"Understood."

* * *

><p>Lorelai stood behind the tree, panting. She'd managed to outrun the Wraith chasing her, but only barely. It wasn't surprising, really. The Wraith had just fed on a villager, and she hadn't had any Avoren since she'd come out of stasis. She could last four or five days without Avoren if she wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary. Now she was going on her second day without it, and here she was running almost full tilt through the forest. Fleeing a full-blooded Wraith. Not to mention the shock of coming out of stasis, which had always required an extra dose of Avoren even before her eight thousand year slumber.<p>

She swallowed, trying to catch her breath. Then she heard rustling, and stilled her breath. She drew her pistol, and carefully peered around the edge of the tree. The Wraith paused at the top of the hill, and seemed to be searching for her trail. It roared in fury, and she spun around from behind the tree, and fired two shots. One hit the shoulder, the other dead center in its chest. But the Wraith just roared again and started barreling towards her.

* * *

><p>Ronan and Teyla stood there, looking down at the Wraith they'd killed, when suddenly a roar echoed through the forest. They heard two distant gunshots, and then another roar.<p>

"Lorelai." Teyla said, and they took off running towards the sounds of fighting.

They got there in time to see the half-Wraith girl get thrown into a tree.

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><p>She distantly heard something crack and possibly break as she hit the tree. It wasn't until standing up again that she realized it was two of her ribs. She winced, and then noticed Ronan and Teyla on the crest of the hill. Then she noticed the Wraith jumping at them from behind.<p>

"Watch out!" she shouted, right before the Wraith she was fighting lunged forward and knocked her to the ground.

"Lorelai!" she heard Teyla shout. She could also hear Ronon's blaster gun, and the second Wraith roaring in pain. But all that fell to the back of her mind as the Wraith on top of her pressed its hand to her chest.

And nothing happened.

"Yeah." she said in a cheerful tone as she grabbed the Wraith's arm and pulling it off. "That won't work on me."

Then she kicked both feet up, catching it in the chest. It went flying some ten feet away, landing hard on the leaf-strewn ground.

"Abomination." it hissed as they both stood up.

She didn't answer, just waited.

Then it charged it her. She went forward, blocked two attacks, and knocked it back a pace. And then another. And then further still. And then she sprinted forward, and jumped up, twirling in a sort of roundhouse jump kick. Her attack hit the Wraith on the side of the head, breaking its jaw. Ronon came up behind the Wraith and finished it off with his blaster.

"Are you uninjured?" Teyla asked as she came up behind him.

"I'm fine." Lorelai said, right before realizing that she really wasn't. Her vision was flickering with little black dots, and her ribs flared in pain. "Avoren," she gasped before collapsing.

* * *

><p>"What happened?" Sheppard asked as Ronon and Teyla ran up to the Gate, with Ronon carrying the unconscious Lorelai.<p>

"She defeated a Wraith in combat, but collapsed immediately afterwards."

"How badly was she hurt?"

"We cannot tell."

"The Wraith threw her into a tree, but she got up right after." Ronon expanded.

"She probably needs her miracle drug." McKay said, dialing the DHD. "Any injuries she got could have healed thanks to her powers, but that would have used up a lot of energy."

"So basically her batteries are too low?" John said as the Gate connected to Atlantis.

"Way too low. I'm serious. She needs Avoren, or she could die."

"Then why are we still standing here?' Ronon demanded, and went through the Gate, with Teyla close behind.

* * *

><p>Lorelai woke up to the bright lighting of the infirmary. She blinked dazedly, and sat up.<p>

"Whoa, take it easy there." The doctor said. "You were pretty banged up. Even if your injuries healed, I don't want you to move around too much."

Lorelai frowned, and put a hand to her ribs. "I feel fine."

"That's because I made sure they gave Avoren." McKay said, coming in.

"Oh." She looked at him curiously. "Thank you."

"Yeah, well…you're welcome."

Then she remembered. "The Wraith?"

"All dead." Sheppard said, coming in with Teyla and Ronon. "Well, the ones on that planet, anyway."

"That's good." she said, relieved. She settled back down onto her pillows, and then frowned at the others in confusion. "How did I get here?"

"Ronon carried you through the Stargate." Teyla informed her.

"Oh." she said, surprised. "I thought you hated me." she accused the Satedan.

He just shrugged.

"Ronon's a big softie." John said with a grin.

She snorted. "I'm sure."

"It's time for your next shot of Avoren." The doctor said, and moved to inject her with a syringe filled with the blue liquid.

"I can do it myself." Lorelai told her.

"Well," the woman said, "You're my patient, and that makes me in charge for now."

Lorelai sighed but allowed the woman to inject her.

"There." the doctor said, patting her arm. "How's that?"

Lorelai just smiled. "Thank you."

* * *

><p>She spent the rest of the day in the infirmary, and was very nearly bored out of her mind repeatedly. Luckily Colonel Carter brought her some books, so she was able to set about learning written English. She'd known the language spoken out loud because it had been around in some places eight thousand years ago. But in the lab the scientists had only written in what the Atlantis teams called 'Ancient', so that was all she knew. Luckily she was a quick study, so she managed to get the basics of the writing system in about an hour.<p>

Eventually though she started to become sleepy. She knew it was the result of her body healing and needing to regain lost energy. At one point Yolan had told her that in the case of a potentially fatal wound, her body would actually go into a sort of hibernation in order to heal and recover energy. Luckily, this time she had just fainted from getting injured and being without enough Avoren in her system after coming out of stasis.

She drifted off to sleep thinking of Yolan and the other scientists.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Review please~ I love reviews, they make me happy. **

**The next chapter starts with a flashback, so we can see some of Lorelai's interactions with the scientists who made her. And for the record, the scientists weren't bad people, they're actually really nice; Lorelai's just upset that they dumped her into stasis for so long, which is why she's thinking badly of them at this point. **

**Oh, and just an announcement in general, I started a Community called 'Calling All Original Characters'. It's for all SGA stories with original characters (OCs), so if you like stories with OCs (and I'd like to assume you do, since you're reading this OC story) then you should come check it out. I've got some good stories archived so far.  
><strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay, so this chapter is going to start with Lorelai dreaming of eight thousand years ago. Therefore, the first part of this chapter is a flashback. And probably a poorly-written one. Enjoy. **

**Oh, and at one point there's a jerk-ass character. I just wanted to tell you all that he's a Marine, but he's not a Marine because I dislike Marines or anything like that. I love the Marines. :D. It's just that Marines are the military back-up the teams are given on the show, and I need him to go with the team on a mission later, so I kinda had to make him a Marine, to justify his being there. Also, I created him to basically represent the ill will towards Lorelai, which is why he's such an ass. Feel free to hate him if you like. I'm not fond of him either. Which is sort of the point, really. XD. **

**(Oh, and I don't own SGA, or any of the characters.)**

* * *

><p>Lorelai slept deeply, not thinking of anything, until a memory surfaced during her fog of sleep.<p>

"_How are you feeling today?" Yolan asked her kindly. _

"_Better." Lorelai said. _

_The middle-aged woman smiled. "I am glad to hear it. You had us worried. Your fever was pretty serious."_

"_I feel fine now." Lorelai said cheerfully. Thirteen years old, she was curious and energetic. _

"_Good girl." Yolan patted her on the head, and Lorelai jumped out of bed and followed her back to one of the main labs, where the other scientists were working. _

_Jorvan was a man of about thirty and Narett a young woman of twenty. They were responsible for manufacturing the Avoren that Lorelai needed to survive. _

_Jorvan, Narett, and Yolan were all descendants of the inhabitants of Atlantis. Their ancestors had been part of a small group who had escaped before the city was lost. But the Wraith were still a threat, even all these years later. So Yolan had found Jorvan and Narett, and using information left to them by their ancestors had created Lorelai. _

_She hadn't been their first attempt, of course. There had been four other attempts, all of which had failed. Yolan insisted they keep trying and eventually they succeeded, and Lorelai was 'born'. _

_But their work wasn't yet complete. They had to monitor the girl almost constantly, to observe how her Wraith-half affected her human side. A few days ago, Lorelai had fallen seriously ill as result of her Wraith DNA and human DNA clashing for some reason. It had never happened before, not in all the years Lorelai had been alive. Yolan and the others had managed to get it under control and solve the problem, but Lorelai had spent four days extremely sick with a raging fever. _

_Lorelai had been told what the problem was not long after she first fell ill. She'd understood what they told her, but hadn't been in any position to do anything at all to help, since her condition simply worsened the more active she became. _

_Lorelai had known ever since she was 'born' that she was not entirely human. Yolan had been very straightforward about telling her, despite protests from her colleagues. Lorelai, however, was grateful for the truth. Not knowing and finding out later would have been worse, she reasoned. _

"_Good morning, Lorelai." Narett said. "How are you feeling?"_

"_Much better, thank you."_

"_In that case, come over here." Jorvan said. "I need to take a blood sample."_

_Lorelai obeyed and waited patiently while the scientist drew blood. Once the scientist was done she stayed where she was, waiting for instructions. _

"_Lorelai, why don't you sit down over here and work on your assignment for the day." Yolan said, gesturing to the girl's work area. Since Yolan was essentially Lorelai's guardian, she took it upon herself to give the girl a proper upbringing, at least a much as she could. As a result, she was teaching Lorelai as much as possible about…everything, really. _

_Lorelai happily sat down and started reading a report Yolan had left her detailing some wildlife in the area_. _The Rheywort plant is a medicinal herb that blooms once every-_

"Lorelai." A voice broke into her dream, shattering her recollection. She opened her eyes to see John Sheppard standing by her bedside.

"Yes?" she asked, sitting up.

"Congratulations, we're giving you your own room."

She blinked, confused. "What?"

"Well, I just figured you might want your own room instead of, you know spending all your time in that cell."

She perked up at that, and he laughed.

"That's what I thought. Now, you'll still have two guards escorting you around when you want to go places, but it's better than the cell, right?"

She nodded eagerly.

"Good. Now, let's go."

"I can leave?" she asked hesitatingly, glancing at the doctor, who smiled reassuringly.

"You seem to be fully recovered. You're free to go."

"Come on." John said, holding out a hand to help her down from the bed.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Lorelai sat in her very own room. It was furnished simply; a bed, end tables, and a chest of drawers. But it was <em>hers<em>, and she loved it. Of course, the overall effect was dampened by the two Marines standing guard in the hallway. The only time she wasn't escorted by two soldiers was when she was with a member of Sheppard's team. She supposed that Atlantis's elite team outranked just about anybody aside from Carter.

A knock came on her door, and she stood up. She waved her hand in front of the door opener, and door slid open.

"Ronon?" she said in surprise.

"Sheppard wants you to join us for dinner."

She blinked. "…Okay." She followed him down to the mess hall.

* * *

><p>Lorelai poked at her mashed potatoes while John enthusiastically told the team about a particularly interesting trip he'd taken to Seattle in his teenage years.<p>

"Is the food not to you liking?" Teyla whispered to her.

She jumped slightly, startled. "Oh, no, it's fine. I just don't feel well."

"Would you rather be feeding on a person?" Ronon asked from her other side.

She glared at him. "No, thank you." She took a large bite of her potatoes and had to follow it quickly with a drink of water. She coughed violently, choking on her potatoes.

Teyla patted her on the back while Ronon laughed.

"I'm glad I amuse you." she said, feeling both irritated and pleased.

He just chuckled and went back to his dinner.

"Are you alright now?" Teyla asked.

"I'm fine." Lorelai assured her.

"Lori." Sheppard said suddenly.

Lorelai looked at him in confusion.

"Lorelai's a mouthful." he declared airily. "We'll call you Lori for short."

She stared at him. "What?"

"Lori." Sheppard repeated.

"…Okay." She shrugged, and went back to her food. She was tentatively trying the meatloaf when a shadow was cast across the table. She looked up, and saw a tall Marine standing across from her, arms crossed.

She set down her fork slowly. "Can I help you?" she asked politely. She did her best to be polite to the Marines; the ones she'd met so far had been relatively decent to her.

"So, you're the Wraith brat." Though apparently this one wouldn't be a gentleman at all.

Sheppard broke off from his conversation with McKay. "There something you need, Sergeant?"

"Yeah." He jerked his chin in Lorelai's direction. "Her. Gone."

Lorelai's tenuous good mood evaporated, replaced yet again by bleak depression.

"Sergeant," John said, looking at the man, "We're trying to eat dinner. Do you mind?"

The man ignored him, and leaned forward on the table, bracing himself on his hands. Lorelai resisted the impulse to push her chair back to avoid the closeness. Instead she met his gaze, glaring back defiantly.

"Sergeant!"

The man turned grudgingly towards Sheppard.

"Is there something we can help you with?" the colonel asked, clearly irritated.

"…..No, sir." And he turned and left.

"I'd like to go back to my room." Lorelai said stiffly in the awkward silence following the Marine's departure.

"I'll walk you." Sheppard said quietly, standing up.

She followed suit, and trailed after him on the walk back up to her room.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Lorelai was restless, pacing her room like a caged animal.<p>

She peeked her head out of the doorway. "Can we go to one of the training rooms?" she asked her guards.

They nodded. "This way."

* * *

><p>She felt some of her stress bleed away as she hammered her fists against a punching bag. There was something almost soothing in working her frustrations out upon the innocent punching bag.<p>

Then her peace of mind went to pieces when the Sergeant from dinner came in. Her Marine guards, leaning against the wall across from her, exchanged nervous looks.

"Why don't you boys take a break. Go for a quick run."

One of her guards stepped forward. "I'm sorry, Sergeant Wilkins, but we have orders not to-"

"Go for a run, Marine." the Sergeant ordered.

It was then that Lorelai realized that the two Marines guarding her were outranked. They _had_ to obey.

And they did. They were clearly unhappy, but they had to leave.

Watching them leave, Lorelai had a terrible feeling of foreboding. She turned back to her punching bag, but watched the man from the corner of her eye. But she still wasn't fast enough to react when the man grabbed her, and spun her around. Then he slammed his fist into the side of her jaw.

She went sprawling onto the mats, bright spots flickering in her vision. The left side of her head was throbbing where he'd hit her. She wouldn't be surprised if he'd broken her jaw. She tried to stand, but couldn't. Her ears were ringing, and she couldn't focus.

She distantly heard the Sergeant's dark laugh. "You'd better watch your step, freak." And then he was gone.

Lorelai finally managed to stand a moment later. Stumbling to the door, she looked around. Her Marine guards were no where in sight. She leaned against the wall for a moment, and then started walking slowly down the hall, intending to return to her room.

But this intention fell short when she bumped into McKay.

"Oh, hey there Lori how are-" he stopped and stared. "What happened to your face?"

She touched her left jaw gingerly, and discovered that it was starting to swell. "I fell down some stairs." she lied.

"I'm taking you to the infirmary." he said, grabbing her elbow and towing her down the hall.

"I'm fine." she objected.

"No you're not, you're turning purple."

When they came into the infirmary, they saw Ronon and Sheppard sitting on beds in the corner, with the doctor nearby.

"What happened to the two of you?" Rodney asked, distracted.

"We had a sparring match that got a little out of hand." John said with a grimace. He had a splint on his wrist while Ronon had a darkening bruise on his shoulder. "What happened to you?" he demanded when he saw Lorelai's bruised jaw.

"Apparently stairs happened to her." McKay said flatly as the doctor went to fetch some ice.

"_You_ fell down the stairs?" John said disbelievingly.

She just clenched her jaw, ignoring the stabbing pain it caused. "Yes."

"Huh." He didn't look convinced.

The doctor returned and handed her the ice. "Does it feel broken?"

She just shrugged.

The doctor sighed, and gently touched her fingertips to the girl's left jaw. Lorelai flinched when the fingers hit a particularly sore spot. "It's not broken, but it might be cracked." The doctor looked at her seriously. "This didn't happen from falling down some stairs."

Lorelai stepped back and looked away.

"Who hit you?" Sheppard asked.

She glanced at him but didn't say anything, just putting the ice on her jaw.

"Was it that jerk from dinner?" McKay asked.

"Where were your guards?" John asked.

She just glared at them.

"…do you need any Avoren?" the doctor asked after the oppressive silence had dragged on for too long.

Lorelai shook her head. "No, thank you. I can heal fine without it."

"But when you broke your ribs…"

"I was already weak then, from spending so long in stasis. I'm much better now." She repositioned the ice on her jaw. "I'd like to go back to my room now, if that's alright. I've had enough excitement for tonight."

Ronon stood up. "I'll take you back."

She looked at him warily, but he seemed sincere. She nodded, and then regretted it immediately as the motion caused a jolt of pain.

* * *

><p>"I saw you take down a Wraith who'd just fed." Ronon said as they walked down the hall. "You could've handled that guy easy. Why didn't you?"<p>

She glared at him.

"Hey, I'm just asking."

She exhaled. "Fighting back would've just caused more trouble."

He raised an eyebrow.

"It's true." she said angrily. "If I had fought back and hurt him, he'd have gone crying to the first person he could find and say I'd attacked him. And what would that get me? Dead, that's where."

The Satedan didn't seem to have a good answer to that, so he remained silent.

When they reached her room, they saw her two Marine guards standing outside her door. They seemed startled by the bruise on the side of her jaw.

"Gentlemen," Ronon said pleasantly as she slipped back into her room, "Can I have a word?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, how was it? Enjoyable? Cruddy? Just click that little review button down there and let me know. And I allow anonymous reviews, so seriously, click the review button. XD. **

**Anyhow, next chapter'll be ready soon; hopefully you'll all be looking forward to it. **

**Also, I recently adopted loveless an the fantasy's story The Child, so maybe come check it out?  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Time for a new chapter! Are you all excited? I am. XD. Please read and review if it's not too much trouble; reviews brighten my day immensely. **

**This chapter has Lorelai deal with the Wilkins situation (with a fight, of course). And Ronon starts to be nicer to Lorelai. Which I actually wasn't planning on happening so quickly, but there you have it. :D And again, I do not own SGA or any of its characters. **

* * *

><p>Lorelai woke up the next morning to find that her bag of ice had melted and was now a bag of cold water. She stared at it blankly before grabbing it and dumping it over the edge of her balcony into the ocean below. Then she tossed the back into the small plastic trash can in the corner.<p>

Then she examined her reflection in the glass of her window. Her dark mottling bruise had faded into a pale purple smudge. She rubbed her jaw carefully, and was relieved when there was no sharp pain. There was a faint soreness, but nothing more.

She heard a knock on her door.

"Come in." she called.

"Hey there." Ronon said. "How's the injury?"

"Injury?" she repeated innocently.

He chuckled.

* * *

><p>She ate scrambled eggs for breakfast, and couldn't help but notice her guards hovering nearby.<p>

She frowned. "What're they doing here?"

"Keeping an eye on you." John told her.

She glared at him.

"Not like that." he said quickly. "They're not keeping an eye on you because we think you're dangerous."

"So why?" she snapped.

"No reason." Sheppard said, glancing at Ronon. "We just think that letting you get beaten up is contrary to the purpose of a guard."

Her temper flared. "I was not beaten up!"

"You were purple." McKay countered.

"So I had a bruise. Not exactly life-threatening." She scowled and stabbed at a clump of eggs, while the others laughed good-naturedly.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, they were being briefed on a the planned mission for tomorrow.<p>

"Sergeant Wilkins has asked to accompany you on this mission, along with two other Marines." Carter added at the end of the briefing.

Lorelai sat up in her chair. "What?"

Carter frowned. "Something wrong, Lorelai?"

She slumped back down into her seat. "No. Nothing."

Sheppard and Ronon exchanged looks, and once they'd been dismissed from the briefing Teyla followed Lorelai out of room, catching up to her down the hall.

"Lorelai? May I speak to you for a moment?"

"I'm sorry, Teyla, I don't feel very well right now. Can it wait?"

"John told me what happened. With Sergeant Wilkins."

Lorelai stopped walking. "Nothing happened." she said flatly.

"He hit you." Teyla said, looking at her face carefully.

"And?"

"John and Ronon were concerned so-"

"_Ronon _was concerned?" she asked, laughing darkly.

Teyla frowned. "I speak the truth. It was Ronon who spoke with your guards about protecting you properly."

Lorelai shrugged. "If you say so."

"Lorelai-"

"I need to go lay down." she said suddenly. "I don't feel well."

Teyla frowned, but let Lorelai walk past her and down the hall, her two Marine guards trailing after.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful. At one point, McKay came by her room to give her a bunch of small ampoules of Avoren, since he'd managed to decipher the method Yolan and the others had used.

"We can make as much as you need." he'd told her.

She'd nodded, thanked him, and then he'd left. She'd spent the next half hour staring at the synthesized Avoren. She was surprised he'd taken the time to figure out the creation process.

* * *

><p>The next day, Lorelai sat in her room until Sheppard came to fetch her for the mission. He gave her a vest with many pockets; she used one of them to carry some of the small syringes of Avoren. Hopefully she wouldn't need it, but Narett had always it was best to be prepared.<p>

When they got the Gate, Lorelai saw that Wilkins was already there with two other Marines who shot her dirty looks.

"Don't let 'em bother you." Sheppard advised her. "A lot of people here aren't too fond of you yet, they're just two more."

"That makes me feel loads better, thanks." she said sarcastically. John just smiled at her.

She rolled her eyes, and turned away. And noticed Ronon watching her, his expression guarded.

She over-smiled, baring her teeth at him. He chuckled, and she managed an actual smile, one that was genuine and not a bring-it-on.

Jorvan had once told her that her instinct to bare her teeth was an animalistic response, and probably a result of her Wraith side. "You're basically snarling," he'd told her. "Wraith do it sometimes."

She glanced again at Wilkins, but the man was studiously ignoring her presence. She wondered how long his cold-shoulder attitude would last. Was he doing it so Carter wouldn't notice his hostile behavior towards

her, or because Sheppard and the rest of the team would take issue if he tried something again?

* * *

><p>Three hours later these thoughts were long forgotten as she trekked through a rainforest with Teyla at her side, trying to find some sort of energy signature McKay was excited about.<p>

"Where is it?" she demanded after sloshing through what seemed to be the hundredth waist-high puddle.

"If I knew that, we wouldn't be here, now would we?" the scientist snarked.

She growled, another one of her animal-like responses.

"I think it's this way." McKay said quickly, pointing towards what seemed to be endless wet forest.

"You _think_?" Sheppard asked, his tone on the edge of dangerous.

"Well, fairly certain."

Sheppard exhaled angrily and tromped off in the direction McKay had pointed. The two Marines followed after, with Teyla and McKay next. Lorelai moved to follow when someone shoved her out of the way and went in front of her. Wilkins. She growled again.

"You alright?" Ronon came up from behind her, and offered a hand.

She considered biting the outstretched hand, but decided not to, instead allowing him to help her up.

"You're a mess." he said, looking her over.

She glanced down at herself. It was true, she noticed. Her clothing was soaked through from the waist down, and her long hair was stringy and wet. Not to mention the various mud streaks all over.

"It's McKay's fault." she said as they followed after the rest of the team.

He laughed.

"Hey, it's here!" McKay's excited voice carried over to them.

"Finally." Ronon said, shouldering his way past the Marines, Lorelai following in his shadow.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Lorelai was doing guard duty outside the complex they'd discovered while McKay tinkered around inside. It was surprisingly relaxing. The other person on guard duty was one of the Marines, and he didn't seem inclined to look at her, much less speak with her. Unfortunately…<p>

"I'll relieve you, Johnson." Wilkins said, coming up to the other Marine. The man nodded, and went back indoors.

Lorelai groaned inwardly. Of course. With her luck, what else could happen?

"I can't believe they trust _you_ to stand guard." Wilkins said disgustedly.

Lorelai ignored him.

"I'm talking to you." he growled.

She glanced at him, then away. "You're talking _at_ me. It's actually pretty rude."

The next thing she knew, she was being tackled onto the muddy ground. She struggled to get up, but a rough hand shoved her face into the mud. She struggled more, and eventually elbowed the man in the gut. He fell back, and she sprang to her feet, spitting out mud.

"Ugh." she said.

Then Wilkins rushed her, trying to catch her off guard while she tried to get the taste of dirt out of her mouth. She was so much quicker, she was able to dodge easily. But Wilkins was trained well, and he still managed to trip her when she darted around him. So she was slammed to the ground again, and this time an elbow in the ribs did nothing to get the man off of her.

"Wilkins!"

Sheppard's shout proved to be enough of a distraction for her opponent. She took advantage of it and slammed her head backwards. She heard a crunching sound, and then Wilkins was gone. Getting up and spinning around she saw him standing several paces away holding a hand to his nose.

"I hope it's broken." she said nastily.

The man glared at her and moved to come at her again.

"Stand down, Marine!" John ordered. But Wilkins ignored him and kept coming.

"You shouldn't corner an angry animal." Lorelai warned him. But he ignored her too.

So be it.

He swung at her, and she grabbed his wrist and twisted. He cried out as she spun him around, pinning his arm behind his back. Then she forced him to the ground. He tried to buck her off, but she didn't let up, shoving him all the way down.

"I'm having a bad day." she informed him. "It is _extremely_ unwise to come after me on a bad day." She squeezed his wrist harder to make her point clear. "Actually….it's best to just not come after me at all."

Then she released him, jumping backwards to avoid his kick. But he didn't come at her again, instead storming back inside the building they'd found.

"Your lip is bleeding." Ronon told her after a long moment of silence.

"Oh." She touched her hand to her mouth and it came away red. "I guess it is."

Sheppard turned around and went back inside, leaving her alone with Ronon.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked. "He attacked me first." she added.

"I know."

"They'll hate me even more after this." she said, starting to feel miserable again now that the adrenaline edge from the fight was wearing off. It certainly didn't help that she was now almost entirely soaked through and covered in mud.

"At least they'll leave you alone now." he pointed out.

She just sighed.

"Look, not everyone hates you." Ronon said seriously. "Sure, there's a group of people who don't like you. But a lot of 'em are just waiting to see what you do."

"I just broke a Marine's nose." she said unhappily.

"He had it coming." he said. "Other people will realize that. And if they don't….their loss, isn't it?"

She looked at him suspiciously. "You hated me just a couple days ago. Why do you care all of a sudden?"

He shrugged, looking away. "I cared before. I was just angry."

"You're still angry."

"Not at you."

She shook her head, still feeling muddled. "So….we're…okay now?"

"I guess."

She smiled a bit, but winced when it made her split lip worse.

He noticed her flinch and chuckled.

She made a face at him, but that only made him laugh harder.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Ah, we got to pummel Wilkins. Am I the only one feeling better? (Just kidding.) XD . But after giving it some thought, I might bring back Wilkins later to fully resolve the issue, like have them go on a mission where she saves his life or something. Also, I was briefly toying with the idea of maybe having this be a romance after all. I'm not sure. What think you all, wonderful readers? Send me a review or a message and let me know. I love input. :D.**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: New chapter, yay~ And before I say anything else, I'd like to thank everyone who's reading, especially everyone who's put the story on their alerts or favorites or reviewed. Especially everyone who reviewed the last chapter; you're all wonderful. **

**On a side note, I'll probably be updating less frequently before, because I'm now job hunting and having lots of stuff to do. But! I will still keep writing, so no worries. I'll be updating this story probably every month, and I'll be updating The Child either every month or every other month, just because I'm going to be really careful with the story, since it's not originally mine. 3.  
><strong>

**Now, do I even have to say I don't own SGA? It's obvious. XD. But just in case: I own ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT. Well, Lorelai's mine, but aside from her none of the characters so far are mine. Well, Wilkins is, and the scientists….So, to be technical, none of the other **_**major**_** characters are mine. Ooh, I'm rambling, aren't I? I'm going to shut up now. Enjoy the chapter. **

* * *

><p>After getting back to Atlantis, Lorelai had to take four showers and a bath to get rid of all the mud and grime. Once she'd changed into another tank top and some sweats, she sat in her room until John came to fetch her for the debriefing.<p>

She almost wished it had been Teyla who had come to get her, or even Ronon or McKay. She wasn't sure how John felt towards her after the fight she'd had with Wilkins, and his continued silence was not helping to alleviate her worries.

Eventually she couldn't handle it. "Um…..Colonel Sheppard?"

"…Yeah?"

She swallowed nervously. "I'm…sorry. About fighting with Wilkins today."

"Ronon said he started it."

She didn't say anything.

"Besides, he was the one who hit you the other day, right?" John looked over at her. "From what I can see he had it coming." Then he grinned.

She hesitated, then smiled. "Thank you."

* * *

><p>Lorelai couldn't help but notice that Wilkins and his two lackeys were absent from the debriefing. She also noticed that John and the others carefully skirted around the entire Wilkins affair, and Lorelai realized that John had probably filled Carter in on the situation before the actual briefing.<p>

"What's going to happen to me now?" Lorelai asked John once the briefing was over and he was walking her back to her room.

He frowned at her. "What're you talking about?"

"Even if Wilkins did start the fight, I still haven't exactly been on my best behavior. Not to mention the fact I'm half monster."

He sighed. "Look, you're not a monster. You're just…different."

"Sure."

"Hey, I'm serious." He stopped and turned to face her. "People need more time to adjust to having you here, but after that…"

"They're going to adjust very slowly if I spend all my time in my room."

He laughed. "I guess that's true." Then he looked thoughtful. "Why don't I see if I can get some of your restrictions lifted? Now that Wilkins and the others are being transferred out of here, you won't be hounded as much, and I think you've proven yourself enough so you're not as big a threat."

"Wilkins is getting transferred?" she asked, surprised.

He looked at her as if she were crazy. "Sent back to the SGC on Earth pending an investigation. He'll be back eventually, but….he attacked you. Twice. Of course he's leaving."

She looked at him, confused. "Why would you…"

"No one hurts my people."

* * *

><p>A week later, Lorelai's restrictions were for the most part lifted. Her two Marine guards, who she now knew as Leo and Kyle, were no longer required to follow her everywhere. Of course, they'd grown to genuinely like her in the time spent guarding her, so they often accompanied her places anyway when she wasn't busy spending time with Sheppard's team. She was free to wander the city at her leisure, though Sheppard encouraged her to go with either Ronon or Teyla on these outings, since there were still a number of people who weren't comfortable with her being there, much less wandering around.<p>

"I know you can handle yourself, but I'd rather not risk it." he'd told her.

She honestly wasn't sure how she felt about his concern towards her. It made her vaguely happy, but it also felt awkward, especially with so many people still hating her very existence.

"Hey, Lori." Ronon came up behind her as she grabbed a lunch tray.

She jumped, startled. "Ah, Ronon. Hi."

"Sheppard says you're coming with us on the next mission." He said, grabbing his lunch and following her to a table.

"Oh, yeah. I suppose I am." She sat down.

He frowned. "You don't seem to happy about it."

She sighed. "I just don't want anymore trouble."

* * *

><p>The next day, they were sent on a reconnaissance mission to 3B8-974.<p>

"Why are we here?" McKay whined after twenty minutes of walking.

"We're exploring, McKay, it's what we do." Sheppard said.

"But my time would be better spent in my lab, figuring out how to defeat the Wraith. Like by studying Lori."

Lorelai growled. "Study yourself." She had a fondness for McKay because of his rare moments of kindness, but his insistence on studying her was beginning to irritate her.

"Well, studying myself won't help me find a way to beat the Wraith, now will it? You, on the other hand, were created as an anti-Wraith warrior. Even just figuring out how they made you would be-"

"Stop it." she said angrily, and stormed ahead to walk with Teyla instead.

"Are you well?" the Athosian asked, concerned.

Lorelai took several deep breaths to calm down. "I will be." Maybe, she amended to herself.

Because to be entirely honest, she was probably not alright. Her increased freedom made her happy, but those who didn't fear or hate her were more often than not simply interested in what made her tick. Which just brought back all her doubts about whether or not Yolan and the others had actually cared about her, or had just been pretending to love her in order to get the best test results possible.

"Lori?" Teyla looked at her questioningly.

Lorelai forced a smile. "It's nothing."

The other woman clearly didn't believe her, but didn't push the issue. "Very well."

"Oh, hey! Look. Over there!" McKay pointed to what seemed to be a small village in the distance.

"Ah. There, you see. Told you there was something here worth seeing."

"Except it looks like they have the technology of the Middle Ages." McKay complained. "There's nothing there to fight the Wraith."

"Well, we won't know until we go and see, now will we?"

* * *

><p>Unfortunately, McKay was right. The village had nothing to offer in the way of technology, though Teyla did set up a trade agreement for food in exchange for some medicinal herbs the villagers had that McKay said might have anesthetic properties. Sheppard agreed to report back to Carter and have her send a diplomatic team at a later date.<p>

* * *

><p>"Oh, and one more thing." Carter said at the end of their debriefing. "Todd sent us a message. He wants to come see us, ask for our help on something."<p>

"Todd?" Sheppard said. "We just let him go not that long ago. What doe he want?"

"I don't know. But he said it was important so…"

"Yeah, yeah, I know."

* * *

><p>"Who's Todd?" Lorelai asked Teyla the next day when they were sparring together.<p>

"He is a Wraith…ally, I suppose you could say."

Lorelai dropped her staff in surprise. "An _ally_?"

"It is…hard to explain. But...Todd, he has helped us with many problems in the past."

"He's a Wraith." she said plaintively.

"So are you." Ronon pointed out from the doorway.

She frowned at him, but there had been no venom in his voice. "Half."

He shrugged, but didn't say anything else.

* * *

><p>"You two should get along great, he's over ten thousand years old." McKay said absently when she visited him that afternoon.<p>

"What does that have to do with anything?" she demanded.

He shrugged. "You're from at least eight thousand years ago, you have something in common. Sort of."

"So we're both really old? That's it?" She scowled at him. "I wasn't even awake during those eight thousand years, McKay, you know that."

"Eh." He gave another shrug, then brightened. "Do you have time to let me run a few tests on you?"

* * *

><p>"Did you really have to break his computer?" Sheppard asked.<p>

"Yes." she said unrepentantly.

He sighed. "You know, it's a good thing there was nothing important saved on that thing, or else…"

"I know, I know." She bit her lip. "I'm sorry."

"Well, it's alright I guess. He was going on about how useless that computer was anyway. This'll give him a good excuse to get a better one."

Four days later, Todd arrived at Atlantis.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, yeah, it was a short chapter. But Todd's here now, so be happy. I know I am. :D I love Todd. Also, I'm sorry the scenes sort of jumped around a lot, and I'm also sorry that nothing really happened. This chapter's basically a set up for Todd arriving. Which is important. Well, to me, because Todd's cool. He's also going to help me get the actual plot going. XD. Hopefully you wonderful readers like Todd at least a little bit, because once I work him into the story, he's probably going to stick around for at least a little while. :D **

**Also, I just wanted to thank you all again for reading this story. Anyone who reviews, favorites or adds it to their alerts gets personally thanked on my profile, but I just wanted to do a general thank you anyway. :D**

**And I'd like to thank EPetrelli for PMing me and giving me a wonderful idea for having Lorelai have to deal with Wraith hunger. I'm just adding this in here because I'd like to let everyone know that I am adding it to the story, though I'm tweaking the original idea presented to me, so you'll all have to wait until chapter 12 to find out how it'll happen. XD.  
><strong>

**Oh, and just to shamelessly advertise, I have a Community going for stories with OCs, if anyone's interested. The Archive's got over 40 stories right now, and I'm always adding. **

**Anyhow, thanks for reading! The next chapter will be up soon, I promise. **


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Todd! Todd! Todd is coming! *runs around excitedly* *slams into wall and falls over***

***ahem*Anyway, as you may have inferred, I'll be bringing Todd into the story in this chapter. **

**And, once again, I do not own SGA or any of the show's characters. I do 'own' mine though. But since there's only four of them currently (Lorelai, Wilkins, Kyle, and Leo (Lori's two Marine guards, soon-to-be friends, in case you were going "Leo? Kyle?")). Also, we'll be starting to get into the main conflict soon. Not really this chapter yet, but soon, I promise. **

* * *

><p>"Lori, Todd. Todd, Lori." Sheppard pointed to each in turn. "Play nice."<p>

The Wraith Colonel Sheppard and the others called Todd had arrived an hour previously, and after discussing something privately with Sheppard and Carter, had been escorted to McKay's lab, where the scientist had been running a reflex test on Lorelai.

"Sheppard told me of you." Toss said, looking her over. "You are Wraith?"

"Half," a voice rumbled from the doorway.

Lorelai looked over to see Ronon.

"Half Wraith." she repeated.

"Lorelai, I need to finish the test we were running," McKay said.

She glowered at him. "I'd rather not."

"Get over here." he snapped, grabbing her by the elbow and hauling her to another corner of the lab.

This of course did not go over at all well.

"Hands off." she snarled, yanking her arm away.

"But the tests-"

She growled at him.

"Right, moving on." McKay quickly went back to his work bench and made himself busy with something else.

"See?" John said, looking at Todd. "You'll get along great."

The wraith chuckled.

* * *

><p>Two hours later, the only people left in the lab were McKay, Todd, and Lorelai. Todd, Lorelai discovered, was something of a scientist as well. Of course that meant that she now had two intrigued scientists to deal with. On the other hand, Todd had a decent sense of humor, and he was decidedly less pushy compared to McKay. But even his having a sense of humor wasn't enough to counter the growing irritation she was feeling towards McKay.<p>

"It's incredible. I mean, your reflexes are incredible, and your healing rate is bordering on miraculous considering that you don't need to feed. I mean, you do need Avoren, but still, it's amazing the Ancients were able to engineer all of this into a person."

"Mm." she said noncommittally.

McKay turned to Todd. "I mean they literally created her, isn't that just…spectacular? I mean, the care, the attention to detail…the brilliance behind creating a hybrid like this with no visible flaws…she's practically her own step on the evolutionary scale."

"_She_'s standing right here." Lorelai hissed.

McKay waved a hand dismissively. "Yes, yes." He handed a clipboard to Todd. "I was running some tests on her blood and I found that-"

"I'm leaving." she said flatly.

"Oh, but I wanted to check out your hand and-"

"**No.**"

Todd looked at her curiously. "Your hand?"

"She has a sort of scar type thing like your feeding…whatever you call it. It doesn't do anything that we know of, but I'd still like to-"

"I said no." Lorelai said angrily. "Stop treating me like some experiment. I'm a person!"

* * *

><p>Sitting in her room half an hour later, Lorelai still couldn't completely calm down. And worse still, she couldn't even pinpoint the specific reason <em>why<em> she was so angry. After all, McKay was just being himself, and she hadn't minded it before he'd started taking an interest in her….

Oh.

That was it, she realized. His fascination with her creation was what bothered her. _"I'm a person," _she'd told him. And that's why she was so upset. She didn't really consider herself an actual person, after all. She couldn't expect others to see her as a person if she didn't feel that way herself. And yet…she did. Even though it was obvious not even those behind her creation had thought her real enough.

_Yolan…..why did you leave me there? Why did you abandon me?_

* * *

><p>"She's completely against any more testing. You should've seen her; she just blew up."<p>

"Well, you can be a little pushy." John pointed out.

"Or she's just a brat."

"I do not think that is the problem." Teyla said carefully.

"Well, what is it then?" McKay said. "Because I don't understand why she suddenly got all upset."

"Perhaps because in your excitement over the scientific aspect of Lorelai's existence, you forgot about the…emotional aspect."

"Emotional, what are you talking about emotional. I don't-Oh."

Teyla nodded. "Lorelai is still coming to terms with waking up alone eight thousand years later than she expected. I believe you should perhaps…be more sensitive to her feelings."

"Maybe we should have her spend more time with Todd." Sheppard suggested.

"The Wraith?" Ronon asked. "Why?"

"Well, it seemed like they kinda hit it off. She was certainly getting along better with him than Mr. Sensitivity over here." John said, nodding at McKay.

"I don't like it." Ronon said. "It's not safe for her to be alone with him."

"You kidding? Todd wouldn't hurt her. Besides," he added, seeing the look on Ronon's face, "I'll have Lorelai's two guards put back on duty to keep an eye on things."

* * *

><p>"Leo!" Lorelai said, smiling as she opened her door. "How are you?"<p>

"I'm good, Lori. You?"

"Uh…" she shifted form foot to foot. "I'm good I guess."

"You're a horrible liar." The young Marine said easily.

She laughed. "I'll keep that in mind for the future." She leaned against the doorframe. "What's up?"

"Well, Colonel Sheppard says you're needed back in the labs."

She scowled.

"Don't make that face." Leo said. "McKay's promised to be nicer. And besides, there's always…," his lips quirked up. "_Todd_."

She laughed.

He grinned. "Besides, I'll be down there with you. Kyle, too. So if you get too mad, we'll just shoot 'em all for you."

"Aw, thanks. That's very sweet of you."

"It'll save you the trouble of flipping out and kicking them through walls, or something." He said, eyes sparkling.

She couldn't help but grin.

* * *

><p>To Lorelai's immense relief, McKay only stayed an hour in the lab before rushing off to help Zelenka with something else. Of course, that meant she was left with just Todd and her Marines for company.<p>

"This is extremely awkward." she muttered after twenty minutes of mutual silence between her and the Wraith.

He laughed. "I agree."

She glanced at him. "What're you doing here, anyway? Don't you have innocents to be slaughtering, or something?"

He shook his head. "Something of greater importance has come to my attention."

She arched an eyebrow. "Oh? And what's that?"

"I'm sure they'll tell you when they're ready."

"Huh."

He looked at her curiously. "You think that they do not trust you enough to tell you."

"I don't _think_ so, that's how it is."

"Hmm." The Wraith picked up a clipboard absently. "Doctor McKay says you were in stasis for eight thousand years."

She sat on a wheelie chair and spun around distractedly. "Yes, I was."

"So you are almost as old as I am." he said, sounding amused. "And yet you look barely old enough for adulthood."

"Give or take a couple thousand years, sure, we're around the same age group." She said, rolling her eyes.

He chuckled.

Lorelai smiled.

"Doctor McKay also mentioned something about your hand…?"

The smile vanished. "What of it."

He frowned.

"What." she demanded flatly, suppressing the urge to growl at him.

"You are…strange."

"Mm-hmm."

"But interesting." He added. "Intriguing."

" 'Intriguing' is a word McKay's been using lately." She observed. "I'm getting increasingly less fond of it."

He laughed again. "So I noticed."

Not willing to restart the conversation, Lorelai opted for watching McKay's screensaver intensely.

"Your hand?" he prompted again, after the silence had dragged on too long.

This time she did growl at him. "What. Of. It."

"I'd like to see it." he said, calmly ignoring her bared teeth.

"You're sounding more like McKay by the minute." she growled. "I don't like it."

"So it would seem." He pointed to her gloved hand. "May I?"

She snarled at him, but he ignored her, instead grabbing her wrist in a gentle but firm grip.

He carefully tugged the glove off her hand, and his eyes widened in surprise.

Her palm looked like it had been slashed wide and deep, from just under her forefinger and down diagonally for about three inches. Not to mention the fact it was a centimeter deep, as if it were an open wound. It had the appearance of a scar, but what seemed to be healed tissue lining it was a reddish-brown color, instead of the paler tone associated with healed wounds.

"There." she said sullenly. "You've seen my hand. Happy now?" She yanked her hand away and snatched her fingerless glove back. She tugged it back on, avoiding his eyes.

* * *

><p>That night at dinner, Sheppard and the others noticed that Lorelai was extremely reserved. Leo and Kyle were there, which generally meant Lorelai was more lively, so it made her behavior all the more puzzling.<p>

"Lorelai?" Teyla asked hesitantly. "Is everything…alright?"

"Hm?" she looked up from her salad distractedly. "Oh, yes. Everything's fine." She frowned slightly. "Why do you ask?"

"Well…you seem…distracted."

"Oh." She poked at a piece of lettuce. "I'm fine."

"Was Todd bothering you?" John asked.

"Huh? Oh, no," She managed a thin smile. "He wasn't."

"So…"

"Everything's fine." she said firmly.

Ronon and John exchanged worried looks while Teyla bit her lip, watching Lorelai poke at her food without enthusiasm.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Did you enjoy it? Fun to read? Horrible to read? Either way, let me know. And by that I mean, REVIEW PLEASE. XD. **

**I'll hopefully have a new chapter soon. It may be a little while, since I've now got three other fics going in addition to this one. But I'll update soon, I promise.  
><strong>


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Hmmmm….well, here's the next chapter. Sorry for the long wait; my document manager wasn't uploading anything for some reason. Please review?**

**Oh, and before I forget: I don't own SGA or any of the characters therein. But my characters are my own, so…don't sue me for them. ;D **

* * *

><p>Lorelai lay on her bed, staring at the ceiling. No matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't fall asleep. And she didn't want to go bother Teyla; the Athosian woman was already worried about her. No point adding more fuel to the fire, as it were.<p>

She held up her hand, looking at it in the moonlight filtering in through her curtained windows. She'd taken the glove off for her shower and had forgotten to put it back on before going to bed.

"_Lorelai, you mustn't worry over this mark." _

She closed her eyes, both apprehensive and eager about recalling her bottled up memories.

"_Why do I have this, Yolan?" she asked, holding up her hand. "Narett doesn't, and neither does Jorvan. You don't have one either." Now fifteen, Lorelai was beginning to gain a deeper understanding of what exactly she was, beyond just some sort of miracle creation meant to save them all. And it terrified her. "This is because I'm a monster, isn't it?" she asked quietly. _

_Yolan looked horrified. "No!" The woman leaned forward and cupped the girl's face in her hands. "No." she said more softly, but just as strongly. "Don't __**ever **__think that."_

"_Murai thinks I am." Lorelai whispered, referring to another Ancient descendant they'd found on a trip through the Stargate. Murai had been an opinionated young man of twenty-five, who had come home with them to study their sciences. Once he'd learned what Lorelai was however, he'd become increasingly erratic in his behavior, until eventually he'd left again. But not before cornering Lorelai and telling her just what he thought of her existence. _

"_Listen to me." Yolan said. "Are you listening?"_

_She nodded. _

"_Murai is __**wrong**__."_

"_But-"_

"_No. No 'but's. He is wrong. You are not a monster, do you understand? There is __**nothing**__ wrong with you."_

"_But…my hand." she whimpered._

_Yolan took the girl's hand in her own. "Lorelai, you mustn't worry over this mark. It's simply that. A mark, and nothing more."_

"And nothing more." she whispered into the darkness.

"I am sorry if my behavior yesterday upset you." Todd the Wraith said when she went down to the lab the next day.

She smiled. "No, you don't have to apologize. You did nothing wrong."

He frowned, looking puzzled.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"You seem to be…in a better mood than I had anticipated."

"I sulked yesterday afternoon and well into the night. Why waste a perfectly good morning with more of the same?"

He laughed, and she smiled.

McKay came in an hour later, and seemed extremely skittish around her. Up until she held her hand out.

"What's that?" he asked, eyeing her hand as if it were a venomous snake.

"It's a hand." she said, amused. "I'm sure you've seen one before."

"Well, yes, but.."

"You wanted to see the scar, right?"

He frowned. "But yesterday you…"

"I overreacted." she said honestly. "If you still want to run some tests, I don't mind."

He looked at her suspiciously.

"I'm serious!"

"Uh-huh."

"If you're not interested anymore, then never mind." She pulled her hand back.

"Ah! No!" He jumped forward and grabbed her hand. Then smiled sheepishly. "Sorry."

She just shrugged, smiling. "It's fine."

"Ow….._Ouch_! Mckay!"

"Okay, okay, I'm almost done."

The scientist had been prodding at her hand with various science implements for almost twenty minutes. Currently, he was swabbing her 'scar' with some sort of chemical.

"McKay, it hurts!" she said. And it did. Whatever the chemical was, it was reacting with her scar.

"Okay! Here." he stopped swabbing and handed her a bottle of something else. "Go rinse it out with that."

She obeyed, taking the bottle to the sink and flushing out her scar.

"Incredible. It's almost like you have some sort of weird osmosis nerve-ending type thing…the skin inside your scar seems extremely sensitive…"

"No, no. Not _seems_. IS. _Is_ extremely sensitive." she said as she rinsed her hand off.

"You already knew that?"

"It is my hand." she pointed out.

"Well, you could have said something."

"You would've done the test anyway."

"Mm. True." He tapped something on his keyboard. "It seems like you have more nerve endings in your scar than anywhere else in your hand. Which is impressive, since your hand, being a hand, already has a ridiculous amount of nerves."

"Huh." She dried her hand on a nearby towel.

"You don't sound impressed."

"Oh! No, I am impressed. I just don't know what you expect me to say."

"Ummm….." He shrugged. "I don't actually know what I want you to say either."

"Okay then."

"Oh!" he said, suddenly jumping up.

She eyed him warily while Todd watched them both with amusement. "Yeah?"

"Did your scientists tell you anything about your hand?"

"Not really, no."

"Oh." he looked disappointed.

"There might be something in the files you found." she offered. "I'm sure Yolan and the others wrote about it in their journals. We just didn't talk about it."

"Yolan?" he asked curiously.

"The head scientist." she told him. "She was the one who originally created me."

"Ah! Your mother."

She smiled hesitantly. "I suppose you could say that. It _was_ her DNA that my human half was based on. Mine has been altered to mesh with the Wraith DNA, though, so there are some considerable differences."

McKay nodded. "That makes sense, yeah." He tapped on his keyboard some more, and peered at his computer screen. "But according to Yolan's journal entries…there were two other scientists later on?"

"Narett and Jorvan." she agreed, nodding. "Yolan found them while I was in stasis after my ninth birthday. It was quite a surprise," she added with a wry smile. "I woke up three years later to see two complete strangers living with us."

"But you loved them." McKay said matter-of-factly.

"What makes you say that?"

"Well, from I can tell, it was pretty much just the four of you all those years, wasn't it? So it makes sense you'd care about them."

"There was Murai, too." she said absently. "But he didn't stay long, so yes, I suppose you're right."

He nodded. "I usually am, yeah."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm sure."

"Hey, no fair!" she complained as Leo stole one of her tacos.

"You need to watch your food better." he teased before taking a bite.

She stuck her tongue out at him, causing Kyle to laugh and choke on his rice.

"Sorry, Kyle." she said apologetically.

He waved a hand dismissively. "No trouble." he coughed.

John handed him a glass of water. "You managed to kill a Marine with laughter, Lori. Nice work."

She smiled.

Teyla watched the Lorelai in relief. Whatever had been causing the girl's sudden depression seemed to have passed. Teyla glanced over at Ronon and saw him watching the banter between Lorelai and her two Marines with a small smile. Things, it seemed, were looking up.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And of course, since things are looking up, trouble will be on the horizon. We'll be getting started on the main conflict next chapter, I promise. But in the meantime, REVIEW (please :D ). **

**Also, I've recently started a blog for my fanfic stories and my original works. So if there's ever another dryspell where I haven't updated for a couple weeks, head over to my profile and then to my blog, because I'll be updating my stories there as well; I figure it's a good back up in case glitches out on me again. XD Anyhow, there's nothing much there yet, just the beginning of one of my original stories, but I'll be putting up all my fanfics there soon, too.  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Yay, time for a new chapter~ Are you excited, my dear readers? I am, because we're gonna get started with the main plot now. Be prepared for excitement and adventure. (And thanks to all who have reviewed! You're all personally thanked on my profile, as always.):D**

**And once again, I don't own any of SGA's characters, only my own. **

* * *

><p>Five days later, Lorelai was summoned to a meeting along with Sheppard's team and Todd. It finally answered Lorelai's initial question about why Todd had come to Atlantis in the first place.<p>

"The signal that Todd gave us to investigate seems to be coming from what we previously thought was a deserted area of space." McKay explained. "We can't get a lock on it; it seems to keep moving."

"What, like a ship?" John asked.

McKay nodded. "Yes, exactly." He pulled out his tablet computer. "Currently, the signal has stopped near a planet with a Stargate." He tapped the screen. "Right here."

"Have any of our teams been there?" John asked.

"No, never. But I think this would be a good chance to go there, and find out what this signal is, before it moves on."

"Why did you tell us about this signal anyway, Todd?" John asked, looking over at the Wraith.

The Wraith regarded him seriously. "I deemed it appropriate considering out working relationship."

John snorted.

"So you think this signal is coming from something dangerous?" Carter asked.

"I find it suspicious that it is coming from an area of space that has been largely empty for many years."

"Why has it been empty for so long?" McKay asked, frowning. "I mean, there're gates there. So why no people?"

"Something must have scared them off." Ronon observed.

"Maybe it's whatever's broadcasting the signal." Lorelai commented. "In which case going to investigate would be stupid."

"Well, we can't just let it keep traveling around. What if it is some sort of horrible monster?"

"Smart people run away from monsters." Lorelai noted.

"So said the monster." John said lightly.

"Of course." she said, un-offended. "It makes me an authority on the issue."

"You're going." Carter said firmly, ignoring their banter. "I want to know where's that signal is coming from. You'll leave at 08:00 tomorrow. "

"Yes ma'am." Sheppard responded.

* * *

><p>"Come on, Ronon, cheer up. Things could be worse." Sheppard said.<p>

"Huh."

"Ronon."

"I just don't understand why he has to be here." The Satedan said, glaring at Todd.

It was 09:30 according to the watch Leo had given her, and standing near the gate on MR5-673, the planet where the signal was now coming from, Lorelai couldn't help but notice how there was nothing particularly interesting in sight, aside from Ronon's sulking about Todd having accompanied them on the mission.

She didn't see what he had to complain about, though. Sheppard's team was more than capable of handling Todd's wild card behavior, and even if they couldn't, Leo and Kyle had been assigned as extra support for the mission. And honestly, she felt better having Todd there. From her standpoint, anyone who was over ten thousand years old knew how to stay alive. _Todd the survivalist_, she mused.

"You look bored." McKay observed, coming up behind her.

"That's because I am bored." she said. "And aren't you supposed to be tracking that signal?"

"Huh? Oh, right." He turned back to his handheld computer.

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh!" McKay hopped excitedly. "It's that way." He pointed. "The signal seems to be coming from a grounded ship of some sort."

"So it is a ship." Sheppard said.

"Yeah. It seems like it landed for some reason."

"What kind of ship is it?"

"I can't tell from this thing." McKay tapped his handheld computer. "We'll have to go closer."

"Well, that's sounds like fun." John said. "Let's go have a look."

* * *

><p>"It's a Hive!" Ronon hissed after he and Teyla returned from reconnaissance.<p>

"_What?" _John demanded, and whirled on Todd. "You neglected to mention that!"

"I did not know it was a Hive ship." Todd countered, looking irritated.

"Uh-huh."

"I would not lie to you, Sheppard."

"Yeah, sure." Rolling his eyes, John turned back to Ronon. "So, a Hive."

"Yeah. But it looks different from the other ones I've seen."

"Different?" McKay repeated.

"This Hive appears to be larger." Teyla said. "But it also appears to be more primitive."

"What? That doesn't make any sense…" He tapped almost angrily on his tablet computer.

Lorelai sighed. "So…a Hive. Doesn't that usually mean a whole lot of Wraith inside? Maybe we should-"

"It _is_ a really old Hive." McKay said suddenly, cutting her off mid-sentence.

"I thought you couldn't scan it." John accused.

"Oh, well. We're closer now." He waved a hand dismissively. "In any case, this Hive seems like it's a little over eight thousand years old."

"Hey, it's as old as you are." John said, looking over at Lorelai.

She rolled her eyes. "Joy."

"So…it's definitely a Hive ship." Sheppard said when they reached edge of the pine forest, and were able to clearly see the grounded Hive ship. He sighed, and checked his ammo. "Let's go visit the neighbors."

* * *

><p>"It's empty." Lorelai said flatly when they reached a hall that branched off in three different directions, with no one in sight. "We've been here for half an hour, and not a single Wraith."<p>

"McKay?" Sheppard asked, looking over his shoulder at the scientist.

"The ship is shielded somehow, I can't pick up any life signs, not even ours. There's no way to tell if there're any Wraith here or not."

"Alright. We'll split up in teams to check out the rest of the ship. Ronon, go with McKay and Kyle. Todd, you're with me and Leo. Teyla, you're paired with Lori."

They all nodded, and split off in different directions.

* * *

><p>Teyla and Lorelai cautiously explored the rooms branching off their assigned hallway, but everything was deserted. Eventually, Lorelai opened a door that instead of being to another room, instead opened out into another hallway. "Hey, Teyla. I found another hallway." she said, stepping through to the other side.<p>

"We might as well go that way as any other." Teyla sighed, and made to follow her through.

But suddenly the door slid shut, faster than either one could react.

"Teyla. Teyla!" Lorelai pounded on the sealed door with no effect. Sighing, she clicked a button on her radio. "Teyla?"

"Lorelai! Are you alright?"

"Yeah, but the door's sealed shut, and I don't see any way to open it. I'm going to keep going; there might be another hall that goes back around."

"Be careful, Lorelai."

"I will."

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, she was no closer to finding a hallway back than before, and had only gone deeper into the hive. And she'd been jogging the entire time. She stopped when she reached what seemed to be a dead end, and leaned against the wall.<p>

"Teyla, I've reached a dead end. I'm going to-"

The wall split apart, and she fell backwards into a large circular room. She'd somehow managed to flip midair and land on her stomach, which implied her fall had been at least high enough to give her body time to rotate. _Thirty feet? _She wondered. _Fifty? _Then she remembered. _Teyla!_

She grabbed at her radio, but her fall seemed to have damaged it. No matter what she did, all she got from it was feedback.

"You are Lorelai, I assume."

She whirled around, and saw a distinctly feminine Wraith across the room, sitting in what seemed to be some sort of throne. She also had what appeared to be tiger stripe tattoos all along her arms, from shoulder to wrist.

"Oh, so it _is_ you." The Wraith queen said, rising from her seat. "I was not entirely certain…but fortune seems to smile upon me. Who would have thought that you would come to me."

"Who are you?" Lorelai asked, leveling her pistol so it was aimed at the Wraith's head. "And how do you know me?"

"How could I not know you? Rumors were running rampant all those years ago. The experiment created to even the score."

* * *

><p>"Lorelai, this is Sheppard, come in…Lorelai, this Sheppard. Come in. " John exhaled angrily. "Lori, respond." But there was nothing else on the radio but static.<p>

The rest of them had regrouped, but with no sign of Lorelai.

"She was going to find another way back, but…Something must have happened." Teyla said, then frowned. "I sense a Queen nearby." The Athosian looked over at Todd, who nodded.

"I sense her too." he said.

Ronon scowled, looking worried. "We have to find her."

* * *

><p>"You never wondered why you were all so reclusive? Why those scientists of yours were so careful to keep you a secret?"<p>

"What. Are. You. Talking. About." she growled.

The Wraith laughed. "They were hiding you, child."

"From what?" she demanded.

The Queen's eyes glittered dangerously. "From me."

* * *

><p>"Here." Todd said, pointing down a hallway. "The Queen is this way."<p>

Sheppard nodded. "Good. Let's go."

Teyla came up next to him. "John, if she has been with a Queen this long…"

"Yes, Teyla, I know."

"I don't understand." Kyle said from behind them. "Wraith can't feed off her."

"Yeah. Doesn't mean one can't break her neck."

* * *

><p>"Who are you, that I should be hidden away from?"<p>

The Wraith laughed, so loudly the sound bounced off the walls, echoing.

"I am the Devourer."

* * *

><p>"Lori!" John reached the wall that had split apart and saw down into the chamber. "LORI!"<p>

The girl looked up, but kept her gun trained on the Wraith. "You're late!" she shouted.

"Yeah, well, traffic around here's a bitch."

"What?"

"Never mind." He noticed the Wraith. " I see you have company."

She re-focused on the Wraith Queen. "Uh-huh. I literally dropped in on her. Sorry about that, by the way." she added to the Wraith, in a clearly unapologetic tone.

The Wraith sneered at her. "I am not. For I have found you."

"Lori," John said carefully, "Are there any ways out of there?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but before she could speak, she was cut off by another gale of laughter from the Wraith. "You will not leave here, child. I cannot afford to let you go."

And then hidden doors all along the walls opened, and soldier Wraith began to file in.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know, I know, it's a cliffhanger, don't hurt me. *cowers***

**But in all seriousness, how did you like it? Good, bad? Kindly review. I hope you all like that there's, you know, a plot now and stuff. Personally, I'm super excited. I can't wait to hear the feedback for this chapter. :D  
><strong>

**Oh, and if there's anyone cursing me for doing a cliffhanger, worry not. I'll have the next chapter up soon. I don't like cliffhangers anymore than anyone else does. And did I mention that I'm super excited? XD. **


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Ah, hello again. I give to you the balm to cliff-hanger anxieties: the next chapter!**

**Sorry for the delay; my life's been getting rather hectic lately. Luckily, I still have enough time to work on my stories. :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own SGA or any of the characters like John, Ronon, Teyla, etc. My characters are my own, though; Lori, (the) Devourer, Kyle, Leo, etc. **

**Also, I'd highly recommend checking out a story on here by **_**Kinetikat**_**; it's called ****Blind Guide****. It's super awesome, so go read it!**

**Now, let's resume our adventure, shall we? :D**

* * *

><p>"Lori!" John opened fire, killing the first few Wraith near her. But it wasn't enough.<p>

Backing up, she fired off her first shots, being careful not to waste bullets. Headshot, headshot. Repeat. Even using such a method though, she didn't have anywhere near enough bullets to keep herself safe. Then…

"Lorelai!" Ronon's voice boomed from above, amplified by the room's auditorium like aspects.

She looked up, and saw his hand outstretched. Understanding his intention, she spun around managed to use a Wraith as a stepping-stone and vault into the air.

It occurred to her while she was jumping that a normal human wouldn't be able to jump thirty feet in the air, even with a six-foot Wraith's shoulder to leap off of. It was one of the few times she was grateful for her stronger half, for the Wraith side that let her do things a regular person would be incapable of accomplishing. Odd, though, that there'd yet to be any drawbacks.

Ronon caught her hand and hauled her up over the edge while Sheppard and the others kept up cover fire.

"Are you alright?" the Satedan asked once he'd pulled her up.

She nodded, still short of breath.

"Alright, there's no way we can win this. Everybody pull back." Sheppard ordered.

* * *

><p>"So…" Sheppard leaned back in his chair at their debriefing that night. "We figured it would be best if we got out of there."<p>

Carter nodded. "Good call. It doesn't sound like you would've had much of a chance." She turned to Lorelai. "What about you? Are you alright?"

The girl nodded. "I'm fine. Just a little tired."

"Do you think it's true, what she said about Yolan and the others?" Carter asked. "Could they have put you in stasis to protect you?"

Lorelai shrugged. "I have no idea."

"It's definitely possible." McKay said. "That Wraith could have found a way to pinpoint the energy coming from their facilities. But the stasis pod doesn't give off much of an energy signature on its own; they could have powered down the facility and left in order to keep the Wraith from finding her."

"But why bother?" John asked. "Why not just take her with them when they left?"

"Well, maybe they….." McKay sighed. "I don't know."

Lorelai closed her eyes. _Neither do I_.

* * *

><p>An hour later, Lorelai was running through her tonfa sparring exercises with Kyle.<p>

She was being careful to rein in her strength though, to be entirely certain she wouldn't hurt him by accident.

"Hey. Lori." A low voice came form the doorway.

She looked over, surprised. "Ronon."

The Satedan smiled a bit. "Why don't you spar with me for a bit?"

She stared at him like he'd lost his mind. "You're not serious."

He grinned. "Scared?"

She growled.

"I'll be over here." Kyle said, backing away.

"That's probably a good idea." Ronon agreed, grabbing two tonfa.

"You _are_ serious." she realized.

"Yep."

She smiled, baring her teeth. "Then I'll be serious, too."

"Good."

* * *

><p>Half an hour later, they walked into the infirmary together, mutually battered but grinning ear to ear.<p>

"What happened to you?" Sheppard demanded, distracted from his conversation with the doctor.

"Sparring match." Ronon said.

"With what, a Yeti?"

They both frowned. "A what?" Lorelai asked.

John shook his head. "Never mind. Who won?"

"We tied." Lorelai said, sitting on the edge of one of the infirmary beds.

"Oh. That's new. Someone besides Teyla who can fight Ronon to a standstill." John grinned.

Doctor Keller smiled as she dabbed at a cut on Lorelai's forehead. "Do you need any Avoren?"

She shook her head. "No, thank you. These _scratches _will heal fine on their own," she added, smirking at Ronon, who chuckled.

* * *

><p>"We have reports of the Wraith ship from MR5-673 leaving, and moving on towards another planet." Carter told them at their morning meeting the next day.<p>

"Where's it going now?" John asked.

"It seems to be heading towards MR9-278." McKay said. "Which is bad. That world is actually inhabited by something other than little forest critters, so if that Wraith stops there..."

"The people on the planet are in danger." Sheppard finished for him. "Well, why don't we go have a little chat with Todd, see if he knows anything about this 'Devourer'."

* * *

><p>"The Devourer?" Todd repeated, looking up from the computer McKay had given him to work on.<p>

"Yeah, that's what she called herself." John frowned. "Why, d'you know her?"

Todd shook his head. "Not personally, no. But all those centuries ago, there was a Wraith Queen called the Devourer, who was feared even among the Wraith. We thought she had been killed; she's not been seen or heard from for almost seven thousand years."

"What'd she do before she disappeared?" John asked. "I mean, she'd have to be pretty bad if even other Wraith were scared of her."

Todd nodded, looking trouble. "Her name comes from her reputation. She originally started out as an ordinary queen, but she possessed a unique ability. She was able to consume others to gain their strengths. She began with her own Hive; she devoured her own subjects. From there she took her ship, and traveling to other planets began to consume inhabitants of those worlds as well."

"Like a locust." John said. "An evil cannibalistic locust."

"But why is she suddenly back again?" Lorelai asked, frowning. "It's been seven thousand years, you said. If she disappeared all those years ago, why start up again?"

"Oh no."

"McKay?" John asked, turning around. "What do you mean, 'oh no'?"

"Well, it's kind of like when we first came to Pegasus, actually."

"Care to elaborate?"

"You remember how we were the ones to first wake up the Wraith here? Well, this isn't so different." He walked past them and pulled up a file on his computer. "When we went to the lab where Lorelai was in stasis, and turned everything back on, the Devourer's sensors must have picked up the energy levels coming from the planet."

"The same energy levels the scientists shut down the lab to avoid sending out."

"Um…yes." McKay looked down.

"So, this is basically our fault?"

"Well, I mean, there's no way we could have possibly know that going there was going to-"

"McKay."

"…Yeah."

* * *

><p>Sheppard was in a particularly foul mood for the next four days, and nothing any of them said seemed to do any good.<p>

"I believe it reminds him of when he and the Atlantis expedition first awoke the Wraith." Teyla had told her when she'd asked.

"So…he feels guilty?" Lorelai had said hesitantly.

"I believe so, yes."

Sitting in her room, Lorelai couldn't help but feel guilty, too. If she didn't exist, there wouldn't be any reason for the Devourer to have returned. It was her awakening from stasis that had prompted the Devourer to make a comeback.

_But why does she want me? _Lorelai wondered. _The only strengths I have come from my Wraith side, and obviously she'd have all those strengths, too. So why?_

"Am I threat?" she muttered, remembering what the Devourer had said. _'The experiment created to even the score.'_

Suddenly decisive, she swung out of bed, and left her room.

* * *

><p>"Lori." McKay said, looking up from a computer screen he and Todd were peering at. "What're you doing here?"<p>

"I want you to finish the tests you were running before, the ones on me."

He looked surprised. "You do? Why?"

She fidgeted nervously. "That Queen is after me for some reason. She tried to find me eight thousand years ago, and I don't doubt that she'll try it again. I need to know _why_."

McKay nodded. "Makes sense, I should have thought of it earlier." He grabbed a nearby clipboard. "Let's get started."

* * *

><p>"Aside from your reflexes and healing capabilities, the only thing I can think of is your hand." McKay said two hours later, after he and Todd had run as many tests as they could think of.<p>

"But my hand doesn't do anything." she said, frustrated.

"Ah, that's not entirely true." McKay argued. "It has some sort of weird osmosis, remember?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't even know what that means, McKay."

"Your scar, or whatever it is, can absorb energy."

She frowned. "No, it can't"

"Oh, but it can."

"Since when?" she demanded.

"How should I know? But the files Yolan left are extremely clear about it. It takes conscious effort, but you can absorb almost any type of energy. Not life energy, though." he added. "Apparently they built some sort of preventative measure into your genetic code to disallow that kind of energy."

"Well, what other kinds of energy are there?"

"Oh, all kinds. According to this you can drain electrical energy from a console if you try to. Your hand absorbs it and your body turns it into energy you can use."

"I have never done that before in my life." she said flatly.

"Yeah, I sort of figured that. But it's interesting that you can, right? Oh, and there's more." he said excitedly, hefting his laptop off the table.

"What, energy types I can absorb.?"

"No. Well, yes, there are more of those as well, but there's something else your hand can do."

"What is it?"

"Your hand can also send energy _out_."

"What, like my energy?" she asked, feeling alarmed.

"Yes, but don't look so scared. Remember the getting-power-from-a-console metaphor from before?"

"Yeah."

"Well, now imagine you take energy you got from that, and gave it to something or someone else." he continued on excitedly. "Your body won't use the energy you absorb unless it has to. Until then, it stores it. And you can expel that energy into other things.

"Like how Wraith can give back life to those they take it from." she said, looking at Todd for confirmation.

The Wraith nodded. "Exactly."

"And even better, while you can't absorb life energy, you can take your stored energy and give it to other people. As a sort of adrenaline boost, apparently."

"All this was in Yolan's files?"

McKay nodded.

"When did you have time to learn all of this?" she asked suddenly. "You spent the last two hours running tests on me with Todd, you didn't take a break once."

"Oh, well, I forgot."

"_McKay_."

"Sorry, sorry. But now we know, so that's good, isn't it?"

She rolled her eyes. "You're unbelievable."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I'll have the next one up soon. And it's rather awesome (from my standpoint anyhow; more action = awesome. :D) Oh, and review, please!(And check out Blind Guide, by _Kinetikat_; it's a super awesome Todd story). :D  
><strong>


	11. Announcement

**To All Readers:**

**Okay, so, relax. This is not ( I repeat: NOT) an announcement for the cancellation of the story. Just in case you saw announcement and were like "Aah no what's she doing?" (she being me :D). _Lorelai_ is definitely still going strong.  
><strong>

**This is just an announcement letting you all know that I've just posted a one-shot type thingy, in honor of all you fine readers. It's titled **_**Lorelai Learns How To Play Air Hockey**_**. And it's….well, to quote **_**tv-tropes, **_**'Exactly What It Says On The Tin'. :D **

**So…off you go. *shoos you away* Go read it. XD. **

**Also, I'll be updating all of my stories soon, including The Child, for those of you who are waiting for that one. Oh, and stop by my profile for updates and personal thank you messages and stuff. And vote in the poll! Because I actually pay attention to that thing; it's for which story you guys want me to update the most. :D**

**Ack! What're you doing, still sitting there reading this? Go read about Lori playing air hockey! XD  
><strong>

**Much love, **

**LinariteLavanya**


	12. Chapter 11

**A/N: Time for the next chapter. Is everyone excited? Sorry if the end of the last chapter was sort of a random info dump, but I spent like an hour thinking of other ways to work in the info on Lori's hand, and I just couldn't think of anything else. It's still crap, but it's better than the rest of my ideas were. XD. **

**Let's see...what else...oh! I've updated The Child, and started a forum called The Roadhouse. Stop on by to get reviews, advertise your story/forum/community, or just start a conversation with fellow writers. If any of you know about the Roadhouse from fictionpress, it's basically that. Except I don't run that one, and I DO run this one. XD **

**Also, GO READ KINETIKAT'S STORY BLIND GUIDE. *tips hat* Thank you.  
><strong>

**Anyhow, enjoy the chapter. :D  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"So her hand is magical." John said half an hour later, after McKay had summoned them to his lab. "But why does that make her so appealing to this Devourer?"<p>

"Well, ignoring how she could use the ability to steal life energy and use it to power her ship or something like that…"

"McKay!"

"Lorelai is special." he said simply. "The Devourer wants to 'assimilate' her or whatever because she's different. There's never been anything like her," he continued. "Not ever."

"Oh, did you hear that, Lori? You're _special_."

The half-Wraith girl in question snorted. "Hooray."

Teyla frowned. "But how did the Devourer know of Lorelai's existence in the first place. I thought you were kept a secret," she added, looking over at Lorelai.

She nodded. "I was. But we did run into people sometimes, when we took trips to other planets. And there was Murai. We took him in, but eventually he…left."

"Left?" Ronon repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"He and the others had a….a difference of opinion." she stammered.

"Oh?" John frowned. "You wouldn't happen to have been the source of that, would you?"

"What! Why would you ask that?"

"Because you have this weird look in your eye. Guilty? Scared?"

"Annoyed." she said flatly, turning her back on him.

"Okay, okay. Jeez. Don't throw a fit."

"Hmph."

"Does it matter _why_ the Wraith wants her?" Ronon asked, frowning. "The main thing is that she's in danger."

Rodney snorted. "Please. Lori was _made_ to be an effective fighter against the Wraith. You've seen for yourself what a capable fighter she is. Not to mention the fact that this Devourer probably can't find her anyway."

Lorelai looked back at him. "Are you sure?"

"Huh? Well, yes. Reasonably so, at any rate."

"_Reasonably_?" she repeated, her tone dangerous.

"Well, I mean, the lab where we found you is deserted now, and besides, she knows you're with us. And we're safe here in Atlantis, so unless we happen to run into her on some planet somewhere, and I promise you, the odds of that are just ridiculous…yes, you're safe."

* * *

><p>"What was that you said about the odds of running into her on a random planet, McKay?" Sheppard demanded as they ran.<p>

"Well, I never said it was a guarantee!"

It was three months after McKay's reassurance that they'd never run in the Devourer again. Lorelai had been doing missions with various Atlantis teams since them, mostly Sheppard's because they were still more comfortable with her presence than the others. And today had been just like any other day; Carter had told them their mission (explore M28-95Q) and report back in a couple hours.

Of course, they'd run into trouble. They'd found a destroyed village a few miles from the Gate, and had tried to find the source.

They'd then stumbled upon the Devourer on the outskirts of the village. And true to their type of luck, she had managed to gather soldier Wraith to support her in the three months since they'd last seen her. They'd managed to get away, but only after the Devourer had managed to stab something into Lori with a needle and John had barely avoided getting his head torn off.

"How was I supposed to know she'd parked her Hive in orbit above this planet?" McKay demanded.

"I thought you were monitoring the thing!" Sheppard shouted, jumping over a log.

"I was, but we lost track of the signal over a month ago." They stopped running and McKay collapsed, panting. "Don't you pay attention to the briefings I give?"

"No one pays attention to those." Ronon said flatly, turning to look behind them. "I don't see any following us."

"It's not like they can't keep up." Lorelai said, frowning, as she scratched at the needle mark on her arm. "Why'd they stop?"

"Perhaps they are not yet strong enough to actually confront us?" Teyla offered.

"Who cares?" John said. "Let's get back to the Gate."

Of course that wouldn't be so easy either.

* * *

><p>"Well, now we know why they stopped chasing us." Sheppard said, looking at the Wraith guarding the Gate.<p>

"They got us running and then just circled back around to the Gate." Lorelai said disgustedly. "I can't believe we fell for it!"

"So what now?" Ronon asked, turning to Sheppard.

"From where I'm standing, we have two options."

Lorelai leaned against a tree, injection forgotten. "Those being?"

"First, we could wait for Atlantis to check in on us. If we're gone for too long they dial in and try to radio us."

"How long would that take?"

"Well, we were originally supposed to be here for three hours, and it's still only been an hour and a half. And usually they wait an hour or two before they try to radio in."

"I am not sitting around here for four hours." Ronon said.

"Definitely not." Lorelai agreed.

"What is our second option?" Teyla asked.

"We head back to the Gate, and kill every Wraith between here and there."

Ronon smiled, "Sounds good to me."

"Me, too" Lorelai said, baring her teeth.

"Oh, you two have _got_ to be related. " McKay said rolling his eyes. "You've both got the outrageous trigger-happy gene."

"There's nothing wrong with that." Lorelai said innocently, twirling one of her pistols.

Ronon's grin widened.

* * *

><p>"Four." Ronon said, looking extremely satisfied.<p>

"Not fair!" Lorelai complained. "You stole the one I was fighting!"

"Stole?" McKay repeated. "How do you steal a Wraith?"

"I was fighting him and then Ronon shot him!"

"So, Ronon killed him for you." Sheppard translated.

"But he was _mine_ to kill." she whined.

"It seems the area around the Gate is clear." Teyla said, interrupting their conversation. "Perhaps it would be best if we returned to Atlantis now, and saved your competition for later."

Ronon smirked triumphantly at Lorelai, who growled.

"Jeez, Lori. You're a sore loser." John commented.

"We'd have tied if he hadn't-"

"Stolen your kill, yeah, yeah, I heard." He rolled his eyes. "You two are nuts."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okie-dokie, how was the chapter? I know it was kinda short but, it was moderately action-filled to make up for it. So….review, tell me what you think~**

**Oh, and just to make sure everyone's clear, the main reason that the Devourer wants Lorelai is because she's so unique; there's never been anyone exactly like her before, and the Devourer feels that if she were to consume Lori, it would empower her, or something like that. (Also, the Devourer's nuts. :D). Does that make any sense at all? If not, just PM me, and hopefully I'll be able to explain it better. XD. (Oh, and as a side note, make sure to remember that the Devourer stuck a needle in Lori. I didn't make an overly huge deal out of it since they were, you know, stuck in enemy territory and fighting for their lives, but the injection **_**is**_** important.)**

**And, again, just to beat it into your heads, stop by my forum The Roadhouse and read Blind Guide. :D  
><strong>


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: First of all, thank you to everyone who's reading this story. You're all wonderful. Also, I wanna apologize incase the motives of our villainess seem hazy. In my defense, I really did try to have it make some sort of sense, but it occurred to me that the Devourer is basically insane. A very refined and sophisticated sort of insane, but insane nonetheless, so I didn't want to make the conflict between her and Lorelai too logical, if that makes any sense. **

**Third, I received a message a while back about an idea having Lorelai deal with Wraith hunger. And like I mentioned back then (around chapter 6, I think) I am going to do so now, because it's a cool idea. :D I tweaked it a bit, of course, but I am incorporating it into the story. It'll add depth, hopefully. Can't have Lori floating through life easily now, can we? XD**

**Anyhow, enjoy the chapter! **

* * *

><p>"So, we decided to high-tail it outta there before things got any worse." Sheppard said concluding his report to Carter.<p>

"McKay, I thought you were tracking that ship." Carter said, frowning at the scientist.

"Ugh, not you too!" McKay, turning his back on them all.

"He's having a snit." Lorelai said seriously.

"I am not!"

"Mm-hmm."

"_Anyway_," Sheppard continued, overriding their banter, "I was thinking we head back there with some reinforcements before she leaves, maybe do some recon, find out what she's been up to since we saw her last."

" Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Carter asked. "I mean, you've never exactly come out on top in any of your fights with her so far."

"Only because we never expected to run into her." Sheppard pointed out.

"Well, she seems to have been expecting us." Lorelai said, scratching at her injection mark.

"What'd she stick you with, anyway?" John asked, looking over at her arm.

"Besides the big-ass needle?"

"Swearing sounds weird when you say it." John informed her.

"Hmph." She scratched at her arm again, feeling disgruntled.

* * *

><p>"Well, whatever she injected you with, it doesn't seem to have done anything." McKay said an hour later, viewing her examination results with Dr. Keller.<p>

"If it doesn't do anything, why bother injecting her in the first place?" Sheppard demanded.

"How should I know? All I can tell you is that the chemical Lori was injected with broke down incredibly fast. All I managed to find was a standard protein marker; it didn't tell me anything about the compound."

"So how do you know it's not dangerous?" John demanded.

"Hey, I never said it wasn't dangerous. I just said it doesn't look like it's done anything. Yet."

"_Yet_?" Sheppard repeated.

"You didn't say 'yet' the first time." Lorelai said flatly, scratching her arm absently.

"What're you talking about, of course I - _don't scratch it_!" The scientist slapped her hand away.

She bared her teeth and growled.

McKay looked unimpressed. "You can snarl all you want, you still shouldn't scratch it."

"But it itches." she complained.

"Isn't that proof of something?" John asked. "I mean, if it's making her itch…"

"It's probably just Lori being bratty."

"What?"

"Look, you don't like that you were stabbed, so you're irritated. That irritation manifests itself as itchiness where you were stabbed."

"Psychosomatic?" John offered.

"Sure, whatever. Look, you guys go spar or something, I have work to do."

* * *

><p>Halfway through her afternoon sparring match with Ronon, Lorelai started feeling strange. Her limbs felt heavier, and she started feeling tired, like she hadn't gotten enough sleep.<p>

"Hey, you okay?" Ronon frowned. "You seem a little…off."

She shook her head, feeling dizzy. "No, I'm fine."

"You sure?"

Yeah, I just-" Suddenly her hand started itching. Annoyed, she tried to scratch it through her glove.

"Lori?"

"I said I'm fine!" she snapped and then froze. _What the hell?_

"Sorry!" she said hurriedly. "I don't know why I shouted, I didn't mean to." Her hand still itched, but she ignored it.

Ronon watched her warily. Lori was surprisingly mellow most of the time, even though she was extremely competitive. She almost never outright snapped at someone, even if she was frustrated. "Alright."

"I think I'm just a little tired." she said. "All that running from the Devourer or whatever."

"Okay."

"I'm think I'm gonna go get some rest." she continued. "Sorry again for snapping at you."

She quickly left the training room, wondering why she had suddenly felt so tired and angry. She was certain it wasn't because she was exhausted from the mission. _Maybe all the excitement's catching up to me?_

* * *

><p>She took a long nap in her room, and then went down to the mess hall for dinner.<p>

Things went well up until she inexplicably got furious over something McKay said, and stormed off. She didn't noticed the worried looks her friends were giving her as she left.

Fuming, on the walk back to her room, she couldn't calm down. And there was no _reason_ for it, she knew that. McKay was just being himself, and nothing he'd said was sufficient cause for her fury. So why the hell was she so angry? And tired, she realized. Not drop-dead exhausted, but a sort of weariness that felt almost like…a hunger. Her hand started itching again, and she brought it up to look at, wondering why it felt that way. It was like someone had rubbed particularly nasty poison ivy all over it.

Her eyes widened. The pale tissue of her 'scar' had turned darker, and widened. It looked more like a Wraith feeding mouth than the pale gash she was used to.

_What's happening to me?_

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Well, how was the chapter? Good, bad? Have I shocked your socks off? Please review~ **

**I know it was a _really_ short chapter, and I'm sorry for that. But it's sort of a transitioning chapter. The next one will be WAY longer, so look forward to it (Or live in fear. Ultimately how you spend your time is up to you. XD). :D. **

**Oh, and as a side note, I have recently started a forum called The Roadhouse. It's a fine establishment where anything goes. Come in, advertise your story, ask for reviews, or just hang out and chat with some awesome people. You can even start a thread/topic of your own about anything you like. Or, hey, start several. Anything goes. :D You can find the (web) address on my profile, both at the top and in my announcements. So you have no excuse for not stopping in to at least say 'hello'. XD. **

**And I switched the old poll on my profile out for 'What story do you want me to update' Version #2. So hop on over and vote, people. :D  
><strong>


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: Greetings, all! Sorry for the wait. Life's being a hard cookie at the moment. Our phone service has been cut off, so to get internet I have to bike to the library and use their wi-fi. So I wholeheartedly apologize for the ridiculously long wait; Id've posted sooner if it had been possible, I swear. **

**Anyhow, here's the next chapter. It'll involve more Lori-mood swings, and other various manifestations of whatever's happening to her because of the mystery injection. So…yeah. Enjoy!**

* * *

><p>Lorelai spent an hour debating whether or not to pay a visit to McKay and demand answers. Eventually she decided against it, both because he wouldn't know anything and because some small part of her was fervently hoping that if she just ignored the change in her 'scar', it would go back to normal.<p>

Eventually she found herself sitting in the mess hall with Sheppard and the others.

* * *

><p>Leo noticed that Lori wasn't an enthusiastic as she usually was; instead of joining in on the conversation she was sitting quietly, prodding at her food with all the enthusiasm of a toddler told to eat their dirt-flavored vitamins.<p>

"Lori?" Kyle offered her a piece of red velvet cake. "Want some?"

She looked up, and stared at him blankly. "Pardon?"

"Cake." Kyle said patiently, though Leo could see he looked a little worried. It wasn't like her to space out.

She blinked, and then smiled a bit. "No thanks. I'm…not very hungry." Then her mouth turned down in a grimace, like this statement bothered her somehow.

"You okay?" Sheppard asked. "Ever since we got back you've been a little…" He waved his hand vaguely.

She scowled. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Well, you know, you seem a little….cranky."

"I am NOT cranky," she snapped.

"No, this is completely normal behavior," John said sarcastically.

"You sick?" Ronon asked.

"I don't get sick," she said angrily. "Why can't you all just mind your own business?" She shoved her food tray away and stormed off.

"Did anyone else find that weird?" Sheppard asked.

Ronon stood. "I'll be right back."

* * *

><p>"Lori!" Ronon jogged down the hall after the half-Wraith teen. "Hey, wait up." He grabbed her elbow.<p>

She lashed out, swinging a fist towards his neck. "Get off!"

"Hey!" He grabbed her fist. "What's going on with you?"

"Let go of my hand!" she growled.

"Lori-"

"Let go!" she insisted furiously, trying to twist her hand away.

She succeeded in getting her hand back, but in the process her glove came off.

Ronon froze. "What happened to your hand?"

"What does it look like?" she demanded, spreading her fingers so he could see what was definitely no longer simply a scar-like gouge.

He just stared.

"Because from where I'm standing it looks an awful lot like a Wraith feeding mouth!"

"When did this happen?" Ronon asked, grabbing her wrist and pulling her closer. "When did your scar start to change?"

"After that bitch injected me on that planet." She looked up at him. "Are you going to kill me?" she whispered.

He didn't answer, and instead pulled her after him down the hall.

"Ronon?"

No response.

She swallowed. "I'm sorry."

"You're an idiot," he told her.

* * *

><p>"Okay, you know what, next time your hand starts turning into a Wraith feeding mouth, you should probably mention it to someone," McKay said irritably.<p>

Lorelai just sniffed, not looking at anyone.

Ronon had succeeded in dragging her down to McKay's lab, at which point the neurotic scientist had called Sheppard down. And John had proceeded to call down the rest of their friends. Which Lorelai was clearly less than thrilled about.

"I already know I'm a monster, I don't need all my friends finding out!" she hissed at John while they waited for McKay to set up the tests he was going to run.

"We're just worried about you, Lori." John answered. "Don't over think this.""How do I not over think _this_?" she snarled, waving her hand in front of his face.

He shifted, clearly uneasy. "Well…" He shrugged, at a loss for what to say.

"That's very helpful," she growled, kicking over a trash can.

"Take it easy," Sheppard advised.

She gave him a glare that could have lit an iceberg on fire. "I'll get right on that."

"If you two are done with your sibling squabble," McKay said, "I'm ready to run the first test."

Lorelai froze.

"Uh, that's your cue," John said, prodding her in the shoulder. "Lori?" He gave a low chuckle. "Don't tell me you're scared?"

She whirled on him. "My scar is turning into a feeding mouth! I have the right to be scared!"

"It might not be a feeding mouth," Carter said, trying to reassure the girl. "According to McKay's reports you have energy transfer abilities in place of a normal Wraith's life transfer abilities. Maybe this is just that manifesting sooner than we thought it would."

"Then why's it coming so soon after that Devourer injected me?" Lorelai asked morosely, allowing Carter to sit her down so McKay could begin his scan of her hand. "It's not just a coincidence."

"We won't know anything for sure until the tests are done," Carter said. "Try to not worry."

Lorelai just sighed, no longer angry; simply depressed. "Sure."

* * *

><p>"So…what's up with Lori?" John asked an hour later. McKay had finished his tests and sent Lorelai back to her room for bedrest.<p>

The scientist sighed. "Well, I can't be sure, but it seems like Sam's theory is sort of right."

John raised an eyebrow. "Sort of?"

"Yes, well," McKay tapped his computer screen. "Her energy abilities are starting to manifest. But not how they should be."

"Meaning?"

"Well, according to the research Lori's creators left behind, her abilities are supposed to manifest gradually, with minimal affect to her psyche."

"I take it that's not what's happening."

"No." McKay tapped on his keyboard and another screen popped up. "According to the tests, whatever the Devourer injected into her system is forcing her abilities to manifest much more quickly than they're supposed to. In addition to that, it seems the Devourer's original intention _was_ to have Lorelai gain a feeding mouth."

"Go full-on Wraith?"

"Basically, yeah. But because of the safeguards Yolan and the others built into Lori's genetic code, that's just not possible. But the serum Lori was injected with it doing its level best to turn her into something closer to Wraith than human."

"Is that why she's been acting so grouchy?"

McKay nodded. "The serum is affecting her chemical makeup in about a hundred different ways, most of which are too complicated to explain. Basically, it's bringing out the violence and hostility of her Wraith side."

"Lori's already a sort of violent person," Sheppard pointed out.

"Well, she's about to get ten times worse."

Sheppard sighed. "What do we do?"

"I have no idea. There's no way of knowing if the effects of the serum are permanent or just temporary."

"Does it make her dangerous?"

McKay gave him his trademark I'm-going-t0-pretend-you-didn't-just-say-something-so-stupid look. "She can take down five Wraith twice her size on a good day, and she's got something in her system to make her irrationally angry. What do you think?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, so it was really short compared to the other chapters. For which I apologize profusely. But it seemed like a good place to stop. Next chapter's going to be much, much longer, though, to make up for both the shortness of this chapter and the long wait for it. I will definitely update sooner this next time, so…yeah. :D **

**As always, reviews are appreciated. Though I can understand if you're all still mad at me for the long wait. XD**


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: Okay, so….hi there. :D Did everyone like me posting two chapters at once last time? Normally I don't do that, since it kinda messes up my posting schedule. But I figured that since there was such a long gap between the last couple postings in the first place, I was behind schedule already. So I guess it all evens out? XD**

**Anyhow, enjoy the new chapter. Oh, but it's WAY shorter than usual, because I'd rather update regularly with short chapters than leave you all hanging for ages in between long chapters. Though you're all more than welcome to tell me which way you prefer. :D**

**Anyhow^2, this a breather chapter of sorts. Enjoy!(And thanks to everyone who's reviewing! You're all awesome!)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>"It's completely ridiculous to have her under guard again!" Sheppard insisted. "She's not dangerous."<p>

Carter gave him a look.

"To us," John added hastily. "Not dangerous to us."

Sam sighed. "I understand how you feel, John. I feel the same. But we have to be honest here; Lorelai has been affected by something that can cause her to behave irrationally. You've seen it for yourself," the Atlantis leader pointed out. "Sudden mood swings, fits of anger. She was acting extremely volatile when I went to visit her, John."

"You would be, too, if you were confined to your room for no good reason."

"But it is a good reason," Carter told him seriously. "Lori's an incredibly powerful individual. Until we're sure that this isn't going to turn her into a threat, we need to take precautions."

Sheppard turned on his heel and stormed from the room.

* * *

><p>"I'm not feeling the love, guys." Lorelai said, sitting on her bed, arms crossed. She was staring levelly at Kyle and Leo, who had once again been tasked with keeping an eye on her at all times. "I don't even feel angry anymore or anything. This really isn't necessary."<p>

"It's just a safety precaution, Lori," Kyle assured her. "No big deal."

"I'm under lockdown in my rooms. I consider it a big deal." She glared at him.

Leo sighed. "Don't be mad at us, please. We volunteered to be your guards again, you know. Carter was going to task some random muscle-heads, but we talked her out of it."

There was a moment of silence as Lorelai digested this information.

"Thank you," she said eventually. "I'm glad it's the two of you. But that doesn't make me feel any better about being caged up again," she added darkly.

"You're not caged," Kyle interjected. "Just consider it a sort of quarantine."

"But I'm not sick," Lorelai said, scowling.

Leo and Kyle exchanged a look, but said nothing.

* * *

><p>"Her blood work shows increased levels of various endorphins and hormones that can trigger increased aggression," McKay said, scanning his computer screen; he'd finally finished analyzing Lorelai's most recent medical work-ups, "As well as a few chemicals we can't identify; they seem to be synthetic. Whatever else the Devourer may be, she's not stupid. She knows her way around genetic manipulation. Not on the same level as the scientists who created Lori, but enough to tamper."<p>

"Tamper?" John repeated, arching an eyebrow. "You're talking about Lori like she's a thing, McKay. Knock it off."

McKay opened his mouth to say something snarky, seemed to think better of it, and resumed with his report. "In any case, we have no way of knowing what effect these chemicals may be having on Lori. They could be mostly harmless, or they could be slowly causing greater damage."

"So, basically…we have no way of knowing what the hell is going on," John summarized.

"Pretty much, yeah."

* * *

><p>A week later, Lorelai was still under 'quarantine' in her room, despite showing know further signs of unusual aggression or strange behavior. Well, aside from her temper tantrums about being cooped up all the time.<p>

"I am going stir crazy," she told Teyla when the woman came to visit her on the eight day. "If I don't get to leave my room soon, I'm going to lose my mind."

"I'm sure John and the others are working on convincing Carter that all is well. You must be patient."

Lorelai growled, low in her throat, but Teyla didn't seem bothered.

Later that day Ronon visited her as well, though he didn't say much, just sort of stood around awkwardly.

What he did say right before he left, though, stuck with her the rest of the day.

"You know, they're gonna realize that this is all just a wazte of time." He hesitated, then continued. "You would never hurt anyone."

She raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

He gave her a small smile. "I am." Then he walked out the door.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, so, like I said, it was shorter than normal. By a LOT. But don't be mad, okay? I'm doing my best to update regularly. I should have an easier time of it now since it seems like we have our internet back? But the phone company's sort of unfriendly, so they might end up cutting our service off again **

**In any case, just consider this little chapter a sort of breather episode. Because there's going to be Lori-angst by the bucketful in the next few chapters. XD **

**Hmm…..what else? **

**Oh! I refreshed the poll on my profile; you can now choose up to 3 stories that you want to see updated, just in case any of you are reading more than a couple of my stories (and if you're not…why not? XD). **

**Additionally….COME TO THE ROADHOUSE. :D You can get the forum address on my profile. **

**And…that's basically it, unless anyone's interested in a Persona RP that I just started. I was toying with the idea of an SGA RP, but I don't know how that would work so…yeah. XD **

**All other announcements can be found on my profile; I update them regularly. **

**Oh! I forgot: Please review~ :D**


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: So…..it's been a while, huh? I'm sorry for not updating in so long; life was getting all complicated, in the sort of way where you'll keep getting one thing after another that interferes with whatever it is that you're trying to do. Anyhow, I'm back now. And I'll be around for the foreseeable future, so there hopefully won't be any more long waits. :D**

**Since I last updated, lots of interesting stuff has happened. Most importantly, I've gotten past my writer's block (Lorelai's issues are an ongoing (and sort of fluctuating) thing, so I needed something more specific to get things moving again). Also, I've found a couple other fics to read, though none of them are SGA so that's actually interfering with my writing process. Oh! And I went to see the Avengers premiere with some friends! Can we all say 'awesome'? :D Also, just putting it out there: I love Loki. Sure, he's kinda crazy now, but really….Dude just needs a hug. :D**

**Anyhow, onwards to adventure! Review when you're done please. **

* * *

><p>Lorelai woke up to her obnoxiously loud alarm clock blasting what John had called 'classic rock' (he'd given her both the clock and the respective CD after a few days of her confinement). She liked the music, loved it even. Just not at five in the morning.<p>

She whacked the clock-radio across the room, where it clattered to the ground. Then she sat up.

Ronon, it turned out, had been right. After another week of being confined to her room, Lorelai had been granted permission to 'resume her normal activities'. In this case, waking up before the sun to have a meeting about some new scientist transferring to Atlantis from Earth.

Lorelai trudged down the hallway, yawning. She bumped into Ronon just outside the door to the briefing room.

"Hey there," the Satedan greeted her.

"Mm?" She blinked at him sleepily.

He laughed, and steered her towards the door. "I'll take that as a 'hello'."

The door opened and Ronon, caring big brother-figure that he was, made sure she was seated drowsily in her chair instead of falling asleep standing up before he went to grab their information folders from Carter, who was seated at the head of the table.

He dropped the folder on the table in front of her, and she glanced down at it.

_Wakahisa, Hayato _it read, last name followed by first name.

She blinked. "Wa-ka-hi-sa Ha-ya-to?" she said, sounding it out.

"It's the name of our incoming scientist," Carter told her helpfully. "And he's originally from a country on Earth called Japan; they have a different language from English, with a different alphabet and phonetic system."

"So…this Hayato," John said, plonking down in the chair on Lorelai's other side, "What's his story?"

"It's in the file," Carter said, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

John gave her a look. "Yeah. So?"

She sighed. "John…"

"He's my age!" Lorelai said in surprise. "Well, ignoring the ten thousand extra."

John blinked. "What?" He flipped open his folder. "Hayato Wakahisa, age…nineteen?" He looked at Carter. "Have you told McKay?"

"Told me what?" the scientist asked, coming into the room.

John glanced at him. "That our incoming scientist isn't much older than Lori."

McKay frowned, snatching John folder. "What?"

"Get your own!" John said, trying to snag his folder back.

McKay dodged Sheppard's hand without really trying, moving to sit down. "You're not serious. Graduated from Stanford at age sixteen and interned at MIT?"

"Born and raised in Tokyo, until his father moved to the United States for work. Specializes in genetics and electronics," Lorelai added, scanning the page. "I don't know what the first part means, but he sounds pretty smart."

"And good-looking," John said, nudging her with his elbow.

She frowned. "What?"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you didn't notice."

She blinked at him, confused, and then back down at the file. "Oh." She peered closer at the picture. "Huh."

John sighed. "Unbelievable. Did your scientists never mention dating? Boyfriends? Marriage?"

Lorelai looked at him, even more confused than before. "What?"

He shook his head, giving it up as a lost cause. "You know what, never mind."

Lorelai titled her head. She had no idea what John was talking about.

"He'll be arriving tomorrow at 09:00," Carter said, " and I want all of you there to greet him when he steps through the Gate."

"Is he coming alone?" Lorelai asked curiously.

Carter nodded. "His transferring here was a spur of the moment decision. It's happening because of you, actually."

Lorelai blinked. "Me?" She frowned. "What did I do?"

Carter smiled a bit. "You didn't do anything wrong, Lori, don't worry. But since McKay and Todd aren't making much headway in the research on what's happening to you, we decided that a specialist like Hayato might be able to help."

"How much help can he be, though? I mean, really." McKay scowled. "He's just some kid."

"Stanford and MIT, McKay," John said.

McKay snorted. "Oh, big deal."

Ronon smirked. "I think you're just jealous. 'Cuz this _kid_," his smirk widened, "might be able to solve this thing when you can't."

"That isn't it!" McKay huffed, crossing his arms.

Lorelai muffled her laughter.

* * *

><p>She woke up at four the next morning, and couldn't get back to sleep. She had the feeling she'd had some sort of nightmare, but couldn't quite remember. She'd been having more and more nightmares since the Destroyer had injected her. She'd asked McKay about it, but he hadn't been able to find anything in her bloodstream that would account for it. She'd kept pestering him about it for a bit, but asking about it seemed to just worry everyone, so eventually she'd just stopped talking about it.<p>

But that left her awake and panicked at odd hours, with no one to talk to.

She got up out of bed and paced around her room for a few minutes before leaving. She wandered the halls, somehow ending up at Todd's lab after half an hour of aimless meandering.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Todd asked, not even looking up from his computer. Todd, as far as Lorelai knew, never slept. She'd yet to see him so much as catnap. She supposed it was good that she'd ended up here; at least she'd have someone to talk to.

"I couldn't sleep," she answered honestly, pulling up a stool to the table he was at.

He flickered a look at her face, and then looked back at the screen. "Nightmares?"

She frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Your eyes."

She stared at him. "What about my eyes?"

He shrugged.

She snatched up the nearest reflective surface; a small metal tray that had been innocently holding paper clips before she abducted it. "My eyes look normal," she said, peering at her warped reflection. "What's wrong with my eyes?" she demanded, dropping the tray and turning to glare at him.

"They looked haunted when you first came in. They seem fine now," he added, almost as an afterthought.

She huffed. "Because you made me mad."

He chuckled, typing on the computer. "Perhaps."

She crossed her arms, and bit her lip. "Todd?"He must have heard something in her voice, because he stopped working and looked up. "Yes?"

She shifted on her stool. "I…" _I'm scared_. She swallowed. "Never mind," she muttered, looking away.

There was a moment of silence, and then…

"What's wrong?" Todd asked.

"Nothing," Lorelai said, shaking her head. "Everything's fine."

He snorted. "If everything were fine, you would be asleep in bed. Not down here with me."

"I just couldn't sleep. It might've been a nightmare," she admitted when Todd gave her a look.

"What was it about?" the Wraith asked, resuming his typing, though it was apparent that he was listening.

She shrugged. "I don't know."

"You have no idea?"

She shook her head. "No." She shivered. "None."

Todd remained silent. He knew voicing his worries wouldn't help the situation. Despite the tough attitude she displayed, Lorelai was still just a child. And children were easily frightened.

"I'll be fine," Lorelai continued, nodding to herself. "Everything will be alright." She sighed. "Did you hear? Another scientist from Earth is coming here."

Todd nodded. "Yes, McKay mentioned something to that effect earlier. But I was distracted with my work on analyzing the Destroyer's enzyme solution at the time."

"So you weren't listening," Lorelai translated.

"I had more important matters on my mind," Todd said testily.

She snorted. "You weren't listening."

"….Perhaps."

She grinned. "There. Was it so hard to admit?"

"Stop teasing me, Lorelai."

She stuck her tongue out. "Stop calling me that."

"Why? It's your name, is it not?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Lori. I've told you before, call me Lori."

Todd sighed. "Lorelai…"

"Lori," she insisted.

He shook his head. "In any case, what do you think?"

She blinked, confused. "About what?"

"The scientist who is arriving here tomorrow."She tilted her head, thinking. "I'm not sure. He's really young. It really seems to bug McKay," she added, smirking.

Todd chuckled. "How young?"

"Around my age, apparently. Minus the stasis years, anyway."

"Hm," Todd said. "Interesting."

"Isn't it? Also, John said something about how I should notice how good-looking the new guy is, but I had no idea what he was talking about."

Todd barely managed to hide his smile. "I am sure you will understand eventually."

Lorelai frowned at him. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Todd just shrugged, leaving Lorelai to try and puzzle out his meaning.

Either way, she decided, Hayato's transfer to Atlantis was going to be entertaining.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So, how was it? Drop me a review and let me know what you think. And I'm going to try and update every other week, most likely on Fridays or Mondays; possibly every week if things go well. So…yeah. See you next time! :D  
><strong>


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